87 Cuban migrants arrive on Florida's coast

"MIAMI (Reuters) - Eighty-seven Cuban migrants reached Florida's coast on Friday, including a group of 28 who waded ashore in a Miami Beach waterfront park.

Federal officials said most of the migrants appeared to have been brought to the United States by smugglers who carry Cubans in fast boats across the 100 miles of open water that separates the communist-ruled island from Florida.

The arrivals capped a year in which unusually high numbers of Cubans and Dominicans left their Caribbean homelands looking for better living conditions in the United States.

Fifty-six Cubans landed in the Florida Keys and three came ashore in Key Biscayne, a wealthy island town near Miami.

The 12 men, seven women and nine children who landed at Miami Beach told police they left Cuba on Wednesday in a makeshift boat, which began to sink somewhere between Cuba and Florida.

They said they were picked up by a yacht and dropped off in waist-deep water just off South Pointe Park in Miami Beach, which is alongside Miami's main shipping channel in the shadow of luxury condo towers."

Reuters

And on the same theme we have this from Babalu

"The Sad Statistics



Now that the end of 2005 is upon us, we are being inundated with end-of-the-year recaps, summaries, etc. One such example is today's Miami Herald article on migration to the U.S. in 2005.

The sad statistics in the article are there for everyone to see: over 10,000 Cubans either made it to the U.S. or were interdicted at sea. That's the highest number since 1994, and it probably doesn't include the most recent detaining of Cubans and Haitians. It also mentions increasing number of Dominicans being interdicted at sea, but lesser number of Haitians.

By looking at the increasing number of Cubans leaving the island, it's obvious that conditions are worsening on the island, no matter what castro apologists might think."
Babalu Blog -Robert M.