CBP finds boat with more than 300 migrants near Florida Keys

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials found more than 300 Haitians on a wooden sailboat that was grounded in the Florida Keys.

On Sunday morning, the Coast Guard said that 218 Haitians were on Coast Guard ships.

Earlier, Chief Border Patrol Agent Walter N. Slosar said in a video shared to Twitter that 113 migrants from Haiti were taken into custody after the boat made landfall near Key Largo on Saturday with more than 200 remaining on the boat.

Slosar added the 113 migrants were medically screened on the scene with two taken to a local hospital to be treated for dehydration.

"We are working to keep them safe, clean, fed and healthy and identify exactly who they are and what they may or may not have brought with them to the country," said Slosar.

The U.S. Coast Guard said that people entered the water without life jackets and were rescued while others were transferred from the sailboat to Coast Guard ships.

Slosar said that CBP was working to identify "the smugglers who crammed these people onto that vessel."

In March, another vessel carrying more than 300 Haitians landed in the Florida Keys in what CBP called a "smuggling event."

CBP data shows nearly 50,000 Haitian migrants were encountered at U.S. boundaries in 2021 and nearly 40,000 through June of this year.