CARIBBEAN-US Coast Guard returns 31 migrants to the Bahamas

MIAMI, CMC – The United States Coast Guard said on Friday that it returned 31 migrants of “mixed nationalities” to The Bahamas following three interdictions of illegal maritime ventures in US territorial waters east of Miami, Florida.

The US Coast Guard said four suspected smugglers were transferred ashore to Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) agent custody to support further investigation for potential US federal prosecution.

The Margaret Norvell crew notified Coast Guard Sector Miami command center watchstanders Sunday of a 25-foot recreational vessel transiting west at a high rate of speed from the Bahamas to Florida with no navigation lights, the US Coast Guard said.

It said Sector Miami watchstanders launched a Coast Guard Station Miami Beach boat crew and diverted the Coast Guard Cutter Richard Etheridge’s crew. In contrast, Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations launched a coastal intercept vessel crew to respond.

The US Coast Guard said crew from the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agency “gained positive control of the non-compliant vessel, and the Margaret Norvell crew embarked all 22 people onboard.”

The migrants were of Jamaican, Haitian, and Chinese nationalities, the US Coast Guard said.

On Wednesday, it said a Coast Guard Station Lake Worth Inlet boat crew and a Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office marine patrol unit interdicted a vessel with two people onboard.

The US Coast Guard said the suspected smuggler was transferred to HSI for further investigation, and the other, a Honduran migrant, was assigned to Border Patrol agents to be processed for expedited removal.

Sector Miami watchstanders were also notified on Wednesday of a CBP-AMO and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission interdiction of a suspected smuggling venture east of Key Biscayne, Florida.

The suspected smuggler was transferred to HSI custody for further investigation, the US Coast Guard said.

It said one migrant was medically evacuated ashore for “a higher level of care,” and 11 migrants were transferred by a Coast Guard Station Miami Beach boat crew to the Coast Guard Cutter Vigorous for disposition.

The US Coast Guard said the migrants were of Chinese, Haitian, and Bangladeshi nationalities.

“Illegal maritime migration is always dangerous and often deadly, and human smugglers do not care about the safety or lives of aliens during these ventures,” said Lieutenant Commander John W. Beal, Seventh Coast Guard District public affairs officer.

“Our message is simple – do not entrust your lives and money to criminal human smugglers just to be repatriated or deported,” he added. “Don’t take to the sea.”