The Coast Guard reported this Sunday that it
suspended the search for 10 Cuban immigrants
who disappeared last Thursday 16 miles (26 km) south of Key West, at the southern tip of Florida, when their boat wrecked.
The search was suspended at nightfall on Saturday
without the bodies of the immigrants being found
after the remains of two other Cubans were found on Thursday, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
Last Thursday, during a routine patrol, the crew of a Coast Guard vessel saw several people in the water, but only eight survivors and the bodies of
two deceased people
could be rescued
.
The survivors reported that the boat in which they were traveling left the Port of Mariel, in Cuba, on the 23rd and that on the night of the 27th the boat capsized, after which 10 people disappeared.
The search for these Cubans lasted for
more than 123 hours and covered about 8,800
square miles (about 22,800 km2)
, which is almost the size of the state of New Hampshire, the Coast Guard detailed.
[Coyotes of the Caribbean: the disappearance of five migrants reveals the rise and nightmare of reaching the United States by sea]
Captain Adam Chamie, commander of the US Coast Guard's Key West sector, said the decision to suspend a search is "always difficult" and is made after "careful consideration of all the facts."
Several vessels and air assets participated in the search, including four planes and three helicopters.
There are already three immigrant boats that are wrecked in less than a month on the California coast
May 20, 202102: 24
Since October 1, 2020, the Coast Guard has intercepted
298 Cubans
at
sea
compared to 49 intercepted in the entire fiscal year 2020.
The deadly accident this Thursday is not the first of May.
Earlier this month, three people died and another 25 were rescued and hospitalized after a ship capsized off the coast of San Diego, California.
The boat capsized when it crashed into the rocks pushed by the waves.
With information from Efe.
