Immigration officers were heading to Cayman Brac on Tuesday after a boat carrying nine Cuban migrants sprung a leak and pulled into the island.
Deputy Chief Immigration Officer Gary Wong said his team planned to go to the Brac on Tuesday evening.
It is the second time in a week that people fleeing Cuba have landed in the Cayman Islands. A group of Cuban migrants in a rickety wooden boat without an engine were rescued and brought to Grand Cayman by a cruise ship on Ash Wednesday.
Their boat appeared to be sinking when it was spotted by passengers on board the Carnival Paradise en route from the United States to Cayman.
The Cubans were apparently trying to make it to Honduras, where many make the long land journey across Central America and into the U.S.
They were picked up around 6 p.m. Tuesday and arrived in Grand Cayman with the cruise ship at 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to Mr. Wong.
The 23 men and one woman were brought to shore on a cruise tender. None was said to be ill or injured.
Mr. Wong said Tuesday that several of the Cubans had indicated they wished to seek asylum, and they were still being processed by immigration officers on Tuesday.
Speaking after the cruise incident last week, he said, “The boat was just a makeshift vessel and didn’t appear to have an engine. From the information we were given by the captain, it seemed to be sinking.”
Carnival confirmed in a statement to news agency Reuters that it had come to the aid of the Cubans. “In keeping with a longtime tradition of aiding mariners in distress, Carnival Paradise altered its course and brought on board 24 individuals from Cuba who were provided with food, water, fresh clothing and accommodations and evaluated by the ship’s medical team,” it stated.
Last April, the Carnival Conquest and the Disney Wonder rescued 21 Cuban migrants on stricken boats in two separate incidents in the Florida Straits, the sea passage separating the U.S. and Cuba.
Related Videos
