The American Coast Guard added that it had rescued 9 people, while the search continues for 5 others.
Coast Guard spokeswoman Nicole Groll said survivors told rescuers that “19 migrants in all were originally on the homemade boat, and that 4 drowned immediately after it capsized.”
“The rough seas and winds of up to 30 miles per hour added to the already perilous journey,” she added, according to Reuters.
“These boats are very primitive and they won’t survive,” she said, adding that some of the migrants were wearing life jackets that helped ensure they could be rescued.
The sharp economic downturn in Cuba has led to an exponential increase in emigration from the Caribbean island. Some migrants try to reach Florida on rickety boats, although most of them travel to Central America or Mexico and reach the US border by land.
Authorities stopped a record 220,000 Cubans at the US-Mexico border in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30. The vast majority were allowed into the United States to pursue immigration cases.
A senior Cuban diplomat said this month that Cuba and the United States were “making progress in talks aimed at curbing the migration crisis.”
The discussions, which began in April, are the first of their kind on immigration in 4 years, after they were halted under former President Donald Trump.
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