Search for 15 People Lost at Sea Called Off

Most of them were Cubans
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 17, 2016 4:11 PM CDT
Search for 15 People Lost at Sea Called Off
Fifteen people were reported missing in their attempt to reach the US Virgin Islands, shown here.   (AP Photo/Thomas Layer)

The US Coast Guard said Sunday it has called off a search for 15 people reported missing in an attempt to reach the US Virgin Islands, the AP reports. Survivors who were rescued nearly a week ago near the British Virgin Islands told officials that 13 Cubans, a Colombian, and a Dominican were missing. They said the boat set off from the Dutch island of St. Maarten on July 9 and was headed for the US territory, roughly 100 miles to the west, where Cubans have legal right to remain if they can reach land. British and Dutch rescuers also took part in the search.

The head of the Coast Guard sector in Puerto Rico, Capt. Robert W. Warren, announced the search was ending. Officials did not say how the migrants had reached St. Maarten, which is more than 700 miles from the closest part of Cuba. But in the past, Cuban migrants have sometimes flown to other Caribbean islands, trying to use them as stepping-stones to reach the US Virgin Islands rather than taking a sea journey directly from the island to Florida, Mexico or Central America. (More lost at sea stories.)

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