Cuban migrants lashed to inner tubes wash up on Florida shore

Friday, March 26, 2004

MIAMI, USA (AFP): The US Coast Guard said Thursday it had rescued a Cuban migrant woman from waters off Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that two others washed ashore and one was being sought after a harrowing voyage during which at least four Cubans died.

The Coast Guard said the exhausted woman was plucked from an inner tube in the ocean by one of its helicopters and taken to a hospital Thursday afternoon.

She told officers a total of eight people were on two rafts when the voyage began in Cuba.

"She reported two of the migrants died Tuesday, and two more Wednesday," the Coast Guard said in a statement. "She also said one migrant remains unaccounted for.

"Coast Guard crews continue to search the immediate area as well as the coastal waters north of Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach for any additional migrants or rafts," it said.

Cubans who reach US soil illegally are allowed to stay and get US residence, the right to work and medical benefits. Cubans who are picked up at sea trying to reach US shores illegally, however, normally are repatriated.

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