KEY BISCAYNE, FLA. (WSVN) - Authorities have taken 25 Haitian migrants into custody and stopped dozens of others after part of a group that reached the South Florida coast on a sailboat landed along the northern tip of Virginia Key.
Multiple agencies responded at around 3 p.m. Thursday.
“Units requesting what the reference is and being told it is a boat of refugees,” said a dispatcher over Broadcastify.
There was a massive response from City of Miami Police, Miami Fire Rescue and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who launched vessels in the area.
The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Border Patrol surrounded the vessel, which is located off the shore of Historic Virginia Key Beach Park.
“Some of these patients are children, and they have been rescued from the water,” said the dispatcher.
Ocean rescue and good Samaritans immediately helped some of those migrants get to shore.
7Skyforce hovered above as those rescues were happening.
Men and women struggled to make it to shore.
Even teenagers had to swim to safety.
Rescuers said 21 adults and four teenagers made it to land.
“Luckily they were just shaken up, as you can imagine,” said City of Miami Fire Rescue Lt. Pete Sanchez.
Video shows crews treating several migrants.
“We were giving them water, warming blankets and just comforting them,” said Sanchez.
“Life is the number one priority right now,” said Michael Silva, spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, “making sure that everyone is OK, accounted for and that they’re in good health.”
Dozens of others never made it to land, staying on their 30-foot sailboat. One person on board, a man in his 30s, had to be taken to the hospital.
“He was taken to [Jackson Memorial Hospital] for mild hypothermia,” said Sanchez.
Several agencies kept tabs on the migrants’ vessel for several hours and into the night. 7News has learned the Coast Guard is processing those migrants on board.
“Approximately 100 migrants remain on board the vessel,” said Adam Hoffner, Assistant Chief Patrol Agent for the U.S. Border Patrol, Miami Sector. “They will be safely transferred to U.S. Coast Guard pending their custody determination.”
“They left Sunday and spent five days at sea,” said Silva, “obviously dehydrated, and fire rescue from multiple agencies were here, took care of them.”
The 25 who made it to land were taken into Border Patrol custody.
Authorities said this was not the only landing in South Florida, Thursday.
“There were two additional migrant landings in the Florida Keys in the last 24 hours,” said Hoffner. “We had 15 Cuban migrants make landfall in a rustic vessel at the Long Key State Park in the Florida Keys and an additional 21 Cuban migrants make landfall on the Marquesas Keys, roughly 20 miles offshore.”
According to Customs and Border Protection, since Oct. 1, they have seen an increase by 650% in migrant landings in South Florida.
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