Empty raft poses question: Did migrants reach shore?
In Hallandale Beach, a makeshift raft washes ashore with nobody aboard
the vessel. Authorities say the supposed migrants may have disappeared
after landing or died at sea.
Posted on Fri, May. 02, 2008
BY ADAM H. BEASLEY
abeasley@MiamiHerald.com
A rickety raft welded together by hand was found abandoned in Hallandale
Beach early Thursday, leaving U.S. Border Patrol agents wondering who --
if anyone -- made it ashore alive.
In what appears to be an illegal migrant landing, those aboard the
rusty, diesel-powered craft either disappeared before authorities
arrived or never made it to land.
''Hopefully, they made it ashore and they're not hurt out there,'' said
Victor Colón, assistant chief of the U.S. Border Patrol in Miami. ``It
wasn't a very good craft.''
The raft was discovered before dawn on the beach in the 1900 block of
South Ocean Drive -- the same spot where more than 100 Haitian migrants
arrived on a sailboat last year.
Investigators interviewed residents of a nearby high-rise community to
see whether anyone witnessed the landing, Colón added.
INTERCEPTIONS ON RISE
He expects the migrants to come forward if they are Cuban because of the
U.S. government's wet foot/dry foot policy.
Under the policy, Cuban migrants who land on U.S. soil are generally
allowed to stay, while those interdicted at sea are generally
repatriated to Cuba.
Authorities have already seen a sharp increase in the number of Cubans
intercepted at sea.
It's unclear whether that represents an actual rise in crossing attempts
or more effective interdiction, but Coast Guard officials consider it a
clear sign of more smuggling.
Coast Guard interdictions in the Florida Straits totaled 3,197 last year
-- the highest since the 1994 rafter crisis. Through mid-April, the
Coast Guard has intercepted 685 Cubans and 490 Haitians.
The increase has been accompanied by a high number of deaths. In
November, 40 Cubans were reported lost in the Florida Straits after a
smuggler's 32-foot vessel apparently capsized.
DEADLY UNDERTAKING
More than 220 Cubans -- including the 40 from November -- are believed
to have been lost or died at sea since January 2001, according to the
Coast Guard.
Last March, more than 100 famished Haitian migrants slogged through
waves and staggered ashore after their flimsy wooden sailboat ran
aground on Hallandale Beach.
One man didn't make it, washing up dead on the sand. A second, naked and
shivering in the fetal position as he clung to a shipboard rope, had to
be pried loose by paramedics, who carried him to the beach on a
stretcher. One 10-year-old boy was aboard.
The Haitians later told authorities they had spent 22 days aboard a
40-foot smuggling vessel. They told one witness that they ran out of
food after 10 days -- then resorted to eating toothpaste and drinking
saltwater.
It landed near Hallandale Beach Boulevard, behind a row of high-rise
condos and hotels, including the recently rebuilt Westin Diplomat, which
dominates the shoreline. The majority of the migrants were returned to
Haiti by U.S authorities.
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