Posted on May 5, 2022

Coast Guard Stopping Record-Breaking Number of Haitian Migrants Near Florida’s Coast

Rebekah Castor, Fox News, May 3, 2022

The U.S. Coast Guard is seeing more Haitian migrants trying to reach the Florida coast by boat.

It’s a dangerous journey that many do not survive.

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From the sky, a flight crew surveys roughly 700 miles of open waters, from Miami to Haiti and Cuba. They look for people trying to illegally enter the United States.

“The Coast Guard’s main mission is search and rescue, so when we get out here, that’s our main concern,” said Lt. Katrina Prout, the flight’s air commander. {snip}

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“When the cutters arrive on scene, they’re going to take all the migrants onto their vessels and conduct interviews with all the persons, see if they have any credible manifestations of fear from their home country,” Prout said. “Most likely they’ll be repatriated back to Haiti or their country of origin.”

The route past the Bahamas to south Florida has been attempted by Haitians for decades, but this is the busiest the Coast Guard has been with interceptions since 2004.

The Coast Guard picked up 63 Haitians Monday morning. Friday, they stopped 102 people. Wednesday, they picked up 64.

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Monday’s stop brings the Coast Guard’s total to 3,897 for the fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. The Coast Guard interdicted 1,527 Haitians in all of fiscal year 2021.

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At least 175 Haitians are suspected to have died this year trying to make it to the U.S, and this number is only from boats that have been reported to the Coast Guard as missing or capsized.