Another makeshift Cuban refugee boat makes it across

photo-6Over the past couple years, while kayaking in the Florida Keys, I’ve come across three or four crude, makeshift boats washed up at mangrove islands, presumably built and captained by Cuban refugees. One, pictured right, was constructed largely of styrofoam.

Yesterday, according to the Miami Herald, nine Cuban refugees landed at Key Biscayne in a homemade boat with large inner tubes attached for flotation–another testimony to human ingenuity, daring and desperation. You can read the story here.

As to the sailors of the boats I’ve encountered, I have no idea of their fate–whether they were washed overboard, intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard to be returned to Cuba, or granted asylum here after making it ashore.

 

refugee boat