WASHINGTON, May 18 2015 – Thirty-eight Cuban migrants caught trying to sail to the U.S. are stranded aboard a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, waiting for permission from the Cuban government to return home.
The would-be immigrants had tourist visas to the Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia when they were intercepted at sea by the Coast Guard, U.S. officials said.
The Cuban government has refused re-entry to the island because their return does not conform with a repatriation agreement with the U.S., one official said.
The migrants were among about 96 Cubans who were intercepted at sea and taken aboard the Coast Guard cutter Vigilant, a 210-foot ship operating out of Port Canaveral, Florida. The ship typically carries 75 officers and crew.
The Cuban government allowed the return of the other 58 people. Under U.S. law, Cuban nationals who make it onto U.S. soil are granted permission to come into the country and can quickly become legal permanent residents and eventually U.S. citizens. Migrants caught at sea generally are sent back to Cuba. The Cuban government has historically allowed U.S. authorities to quickly repatriate those migrants caught at sea.
The migrants were found near the Virgin Islands in late April and have been aboard the Vigilant in international waters since, one of the officials said.
The so-called wet-foot-dry-foot policy has long angered Cuba’s communist leaders who have argued that the policy encourages Cuban citizens to make the treacherous trip across the Florida Straits, often on homemade rafts or rickety boats in hopes of landing on U.S. soil.
