Miami Beach has long had the reputation for bleached blonde beauties, buff bodies and a whole lot of sun. What you might not be familiar with is the sight of a makeshift sailboat rocking up on a Tuesday, 12 migrants on board believed to have navigated all the way from Cuba.
The group consisted of 11 men, one woman and a dog, with the boat full of empty water jugs and soiled clothes. Here’s Mashable:
The migrants had been at sea for six days, according to one witness who said she was sunbathing when the boat made landfall…
The U.S. Coastguard reports that it regularly intercepts Cuban migrants headed towards their coast, estimating that it has returned almost 4 000 Cubans back to their homeland in 2015 alone.
Here’s some footage from on the ground at the exact moment of their arrival.
The Miami New Times reports:
Officials are still trying to confirm that the group is actually from Cuba, and if they are, they’ll likely be allowed to stay under America’s “Wet Foot, Dry Foot” Cuban immigration policy that allows Cubans who reach American soil to legally stay in the country.
It looks like there has been a massive shift in mindset regarding the plight of refugees since the pictures of the drowned young boy hit international headlines. Perhaps it really does take something as jarring as those images to remind us that being empathetic towards the suffering of others is still something we are capable of.
[sources:mashable&miaminewtimes]
