A group of 16 Cuban migrants, including two children, arrived in the Lower Florida Keys Thursday morning, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
The children were accompanied by adults, Agent Adam Hoffner, Miami division chief of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said in an email.
The group arrived on Summerland Key, about 17 miles north of Key West, in a small commercial fishing vessel called the Anna Celia, Hoffner said.
“We continue to emphasize the dangers associated with illegal migration at sea. In this event, there was not any safety equipment or life vests onboard the vessel,” Hoffner said in a statement. “Fortunately, there were no injuries to report. Our agents and local law enforcement partners quickly arrived on scene and evaluated each of the individuals.”
Thursday’s landing came two days after the Coast Guard returned 21 Cubans who the agency stopped at sea about 46 miles south of Key West on Friday.
Both incidents are part of an ongoing surge in maritime migration to South Florida and the Keys, which also includes Haitians fleeing their homeland.
On Monday, more than 100 Haitian migrants arrived off an oceanfront neighborhood, also in Summerland Key.
Earlier this month, 356 Haitian migrants arrived in a large wooden boat about 200 yards off the gated community of Ocean Reef Club in north Key Largo. It was the largest migrant landing in South Florida in recent memory.
Maritime migration from both Cuba and Haiti has reached levels not seen in several years.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, 961 Cuban migrants have been stopped at sea since Oct. 1, surpassing the 838 people interdicted throughout all of last fiscal year — a period which runs from October to the end of September. Both fiscal years far outpace FY 2020, when the Coast Guard only caught 49 people on the Florida Straits fleeing Cuba.
Migration attempts from Haiti to South Florida have also recently surpassed last fiscal year, according to the Coast Guard. Since Oct. 1, the agency stopped 1,577 people on the ocean, compared to 1,527 in all of FY 2021.
