US repatriates 52 Cuban migrants
The United States on Wednesday repatriated 52 Cubans, including 20 rescued from a raft together with six gunshot victims who may remain in the country, the US Coast Guard said.
A Coast Guard patrol boat took the rafters, recovered from three different vessels, to the Cuban village of Bahia de Cabanas, the agency said in a statement.
The six suffering from gunshot wounds were rescued near Key West, Florida along with 20 others and taken to local hospitals, the Coast Guard added.
Four Cuban migrants sit in their sailing vessel prior to being stopped by the Coast Guard in the Florida Straits on March 23, 2016
Two of the wounded told local media that unknown attackers tried to remove them from their makeshift raft after they sailed from Cuba, and opened fire when the migrants refused to comply.
The Coast Guard has seen a spike in the number of Cubans arriving in the United States by land and sea since Washington and Havana announced they would begin normalizing relations in December 2014.
Cuban migrants who reach the United States are put on a fast track to residency and citizenship under a Cold War-era policy that many fear will be shelved.
"Immigration policies have not changed and we urge people not to take to the ocean in unseaworthy vessels," Coast Guard Captain Mark Gordon said. "It is illegal and extremely dangerous."
More than 43,000 Cubans entered the United States by sea and land during fiscal year 2015 -- which ended in September -- a figure not seen for decades.
Some 2,753 Cubans have attempted to reach US shores on rafts since October 1, the Coast Guard estimates.
