MIAMI – Coast Guard crewman William Flores transferred 37 Cubans to Bahamian authorities Sunday after two separate rescues off the Bahamas.
A Coast Guard auxiliary air crew from Miami Air Base notified Coast Guard watchdogs in Key West Sector Thursday of a group of people waving their arms in distress at Cay Sal Bank, Bahamas.
An aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry notified 7th Coast Guard District observers on Friday of a group of migrants stranded on Anguilla Cay, Bahamas. The aircrew dropped food, water and a radio to make communications.
Bahamas authorities requested assistance from the US Coast Guard Agency in rescuing people off the two uninhabited islands. A Northland Coastguard crew arrived at the scene and brought the migrants on board, due to safety concerns at sea.
“The Coast Guard and our task force partners are aggressively patrolling the Florida Strait, Windward Passage and Mona Passage to save lives by rescuing migrants from unsafe environments, deterring dangerous attempts to illegally enter the United States by sea and preventing human smuggling activity,” said Lt. Col. Connor Pascal, Coast Guard Liaison Officer, Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands. “These irregular and illegal journeys on unseaworthy vessels are extremely dangerous and endanger the lives of migrants.”
Once on board a Coast Guard vessel, migrants are processed for identification and provided with food, water, shelter and basic medical care before being returned to their country of origin or back to the country from which they departed.
The Coast Guard, along with its partners in the Homeland Security Task Force Southeast, maintains a continuous presence with air, land and sea assets in the Florida Straits, Windward Passage, Mona Passage, and the Caribbean Sea in support of Operation Vigilant Sentinel. . The HSTF-SE joint, multi-layered approach is designed to protect the safety of life at sea while preventing illegal maritime entry into the United States and its territories.
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-US Coast Guard-
