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Cruise Ship Rescues 28 Cuban Migrants

Posted on: Monday, 20 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Oscar Corral, The Miami Herald

Mar. 20--A Carnival cruise ship is poised to turn over to the Coast Guard 28 Cuban migrants it picked up on the high seas, after having stopped in Galveston, Texas, over the weekend, Coast Guard officials said today.

Cuban exile activist Ramon Saul Sanchez said the cruise staff was told by the U.S. government that instead of turning over the Cubans to immigration authorities at the Galveston port, they must transfer them to a Coast Guard cutter at sea because they do not qualify as "dry foot."

Coast Guard spokesman Luis Diaz confirmed Monday morning that the migrants were going to be turned over to the Coast Guard in the next few days.

"Before that cruise ship even arrived [in Galveston], that ship was advised that the Cubans were not to get off board," Diaz said. "Once the ship departs, they will rendezvous with a cutter and normal procedures will follow through."

Diaz said that all cruise ships and commercial shipping vessels must alert authorities 96 hours in advance when they plan to arrive at a U.S. port and provide a complete passenger list. He said when cruise ship officials say they are carrying Cuban migrants, the routine is to have them keep the migrants on board because they are still "feet wet".

Under the controversial wet-foot, dry-foot policy, most Cuban migrants picked up at sea are repatriated to Cuba, but those who make it to U.S. terrority can stay.

Sanchez said the migrants were barred from talking to the media, legal representatives or their families while docked at Galveston.

Carnival Cruise lines, which is based in Miami, referred questions to the Coast Guard.

Diaz said that a cruise ship can sometimes be considered U.S. territory, but it must be a U.S.-flagged ship, meaning that it's registered in the United States and carries that country's flag. However, Diaz said, the ship that picked up the Cubans is not U.S.-flagged.

"It's not a U.S.-flagged vessel," Diaz said. "There are no U.S. flagged cruise ships on the east coast as far as I know."

Read Miami's Cuban Connection, the Miami Herald's new blog on Cuba and Cuban exile issues, in the blogs section of the Herald's website, or type in: http://blogs.herald.com/cuban_connection/

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Source: The Miami Herald

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