MIAMI (Reuters) - Seven Cuban migrants, one of them a pregnant woman, were taken to hospitals for treatment of exposure Tuesday and said they had sailed for 10 days to Florida in a small boat, officials said.
They told investigators they arrived on a beach near Ft. Pierce, Florida, about 100 miles north of Miami, after 10 days at sea. They said they called relatives, who picked them up, Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Lemar Wooley said.
The five men and two women were being treated at two Miami-area hospitals, Wooley said.
"They were all in poor enough condition to be hospitalized,'' he said.
U.S. immigration agents were called when the migrants turned up before dawn at a hospital in Hialeah, west of Miami, he said.
Cubans fleeing the communist-ruled island on rafts or in small boats are often intercepted at sea by U.S. Coast Guard vessels. They are usually returned to Cuba under terms of a 1995 immigration agreement between the U.S. and Cuban governments.
The U.S. Coast Guard said it had intercepted 363 rafters this year, compared to 403 in 1996.
Most migrants attempt the crossing between Cuba and the Florida Keys during summer months when winds and seas are relatively calm. The crossing becomes more difficult in fall and winter.
If the group landed at Ft. Pierce, as they claimed, they would have traveled more than 200 miles.
Cubans who arrive in the United States are taken to a U.S. detention center until INS agents examine their cases. But they could be released pending disposition of their claims if they had relatives to vouch for them.
"They are eligible for parole, just as any other person would be under similar circumstances,'' Wooley said. REUTERS
11:49 12-09-97