Cruise ships returning to Florida ports rescued 24 migrants bound for the United States – including five from Cuba – who were stranded at sea in dingy rafts
- Two groups of migrants were rescued after being stranded in makeshift boats in various incidents on Monday
- Five migrants were sighted by the carnival celebration about 25 nautical miles off northwest Cuba
- The Celebrity Beyond rescued 19 migrants lost at sea 200 miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Several hundred migrants landed on the Florida Keys coast over the holiday weekend
Two cruise ships rescued groups of Cuban migrants missing at sea on Monday.
Footage taken by a passenger aboard the carnival celebration showed five migrants stranded aboard a small makeshift vessel powered by a single engine 25 nautical miles northwest of Cuba around 11am Monday.
According to WPLG, a Miami ABC affiliate, the ocean liner sailed toward the migrants while the crew helped them on board.
The group was navigating toward the United States and had spent several days without food or water.
Five migrants were rescued by a Carnival Cruises ship about 25 nautical miles off northwest Cuba on Monday. The people, all natives of the communist island, had been missing at sea for several days before being discovered and brought aboard the ocean liner
On Monday, Celebrity Cruises’ ship Celebrity Beyond encountered a wooden ship carrying 19 migrants lost at sea about 200 miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Olivia O’Brien, a passenger aboard the Celebration, said the ship turned around in the sea to pick up the migrants.
“It was pretty cool to see,” she said.
The migrants were turned over to the US Coast Guard for processing.
In another incident, crew aboard the Celebrities Cruises ship rescued 19 migrants bound for Florida in a wooden raft.
The Celebrity Beyond was about 200 miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale when she encountered the boat.
Footage captured by the ship’s captain, Kate McCue, describes the crews’ rescue efforts.
A wooden-built raft is tied to the Celebrity Beyond cruise ship after 19 migrants were spotted lost at sea about 200 miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Monday
One of 19 migrants rescued from a wooden ship is placed in a wheelchair by crew members of a Celebrities Cruises ship on Monday
The migrants were helped onto the ship and given blankets before being escorted to another area of the liner.
A US Coast Guard spokesman told the agency is still working to identify the migrants.
The rescues follow the massive arrival of migrants in the Florida Keys in recent days that have drained the resources of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
Over the weekend, 300 migrants reached the shore of Dry Tortugas National Park, about 70 miles west of Key West. Access to the park was closed to allow authorities and paramedics to screen the migrants before they were taken to Key West.
A group of Cuban migrants stand in the sun on the edge of US Highway 1 on the Middle Keys island of Duck Key, Florida Monday
A group of Cuban migrants stand in the sun on the edge of US Highway 1 on the Middle Keys Island of Duck Key, Florida Monday
In another migrant smuggling incident, 160 people arrived by boats in other parts of the Florida Keys over the New Year’s weekend. Around 30 people were found in two new migrant groups in the Middle Keys on Monday.
“This demonstrates the lack of a federal government work plan to address a foreseeable problem of mass migration,” Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a news release Monday.
US Border Patrol and Coast Guard crews patrolling South Florida and the Keys have seen the largest escalation of migrations by boat in nearly a decade, with hundreds of apprehensions in recent months.
Most migrants are from Cuba and Haiti, escaping economic turmoil, food shortages and rising inflation.