Villa Clara, Cuba, May 26 (BNA): A ship carrying more than 800 Haitians trying to reach the United States has ended up on the coast of central Cuba, in what appears to be the largest group seen so far in a mass exodus swollen from the crisis. Haiti storm.
Red Cross officials in Villa Clara County said Wednesday that 842 Haitians are being housed in a tourist camp, the Associated Press reported.
The group arrived on Tuesday at Villa Blanca, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) east of Havana, and reportedly included 70 children and 97 women.
The Haitians said they called for help with flashlights after the captain abandoned them and threw them away.
“We had been on Tortuga Island for two months waiting for the flight until last Saturday, when they took us to the boat at five in the morning,” 19-year-old Joyce Ball, who arrived on the boat, told The Associated Press.
In the following days, Paul said, “15 people threw themselves into the sea because they could not stand the hunger.” “There was a herring (for every) 15 people and they gave us water.”
Paul was traveling with his uncle, wife and child at a cost of $4,000 per person. The family said the captain abandoned them early Tuesday on a separate small boat after taking their cell phones. The ship was listed. Using a flashlight, they managed to catch the attention of the people on the coast of Cuba.
While the number of migrants on this single ship seemed unprecedented, the US Coast Guard and other countries have reported interception of several boats carrying more than 100 Haitians in recent months.
It is not uncommon for Haitians to be transported by currents and winds to Cuba, which borders most of the sea route between Haiti and the United States, and Cuba returns most of the migrants arriving in Haiti.
The collapsed economy, escalation of gang-related violence and kidnappings in Haiti prompted thousands of Haitians to flee their country in the past year. Human rights activists in Haiti say those fleeing believe they are safer to risk on an overcrowded boat than to remain in their own country.
US authorities say the number of Haitian immigrants detained in and around Caribbean jurisdictions has doubled. On Tuesday, the US Coast Guard said it had stopped a cargo ship with 153 Haitian immigrants on board near the Florida Keys.
Earlier this month, the Coast Guard rescued 36 Haitian migrants and found 11 more dead – all women – after a boat capsized northwest of Puerto Rico. The rescue came just days after 68 migrants were rescued in the treacherous waters between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.
In April, the US Coast Guard spotted more than 130 Haitian immigrants on a boat near the Bahamas. A month ago, 140 immigrants arrived in the Florida Keys.
US Coast Guard crews have intercepted about 4,500 Haitians since October. Many were trying to come ashore in the Florida Keys in overloaded ships. More than 3,000 of these migrants have been found since mid-March, indicating that the frequency is increasing in the spring.
On the other hand, the Cuban government reported that a group of 292 Haitians arrived in the province of Ciego de Avila in February.
Maximo Luz, a journalist with Telecubanacan radio station, said that “adverse navigation conditions” had brought the latest group of Haitians to Cuba, where they “asked the help of the border guards.”
National news website Cubadipat showed pictures of a gray ship full of people and rescue workers carrying some Haitians for treatment.
Miguel Angel Fernandez, head of the Red Cross in Villa Clara province, said 842 Haitians received medical care and first aid.
“They’re in quarantine,” Fernandez told the Associated Press, noting that they would stay there for three to five days.
Arlettes Ramos, the municipality’s director of epidemiology, said the Haitians are being monitored for diseases such as COVID-19, malaria and cholera, although no one among the group has become seriously ill.