Cuban migrants rescued from sinking vessel off coast of Florida

‘If the air crew hadn’t found them on the patrol, these people would not have survived the night’

Cuban migrants pictured on a sinking vessel off the coast of Florida on Thursday (AP)

Ten Cuban migrants have been rescued from a sinking vessel off the coast of Florida, according to the US Coast Guard (USCG).

The sinking boat was spotted during an air patrol on Thursday, roughly 40 miles from Key Largo in the upper Florida Keys, tweeted USCG Southeast.

Capt. Shawn Koch, the commanding officer of Air Station Miami, said that the people on board the boat would have died had they not been spotted and taken to safety.

“They didn’t have lifejackets or safety equipment,” he said.

“If the air crew hadn’t found them on the patrol, these people would not have survived the night.”

A photo released by the Coast Guard shows 10 people packed onto a small boat, with one side partly submerged in the ocean.

The water is already almost shoulder deep on the person on the farthest end of the boat.

Several of the passengers appear to be waving at the rescue teams for help.

The Coast Guard said that six of the migrants were repatriated to Cuba on Saturday aboard the Cutter William Trump, while the other four were taken to Florida for medical treatment.

Their conditions were unknown.

A second photo shows the migrants safely on a Coast Guard boat, while only the bow of their vessel appears to still be visible above the surface of the water.

The migrants safely aboard a Coast Guard boat while only the bow of their vessel is still above the surface of the water (US Coast Guard)

The rescue comes one week after the Coast Guard called off its search for survivors after a boat believed to be smuggling migrants from the Bahamas capsized around 40 miles off the coast of Fort Pierce, Florida.

A sole survivor out of 40 passengers aboard the boat was found clinging to the 25-foot vessel on 23 January by someone on board a commercial vessel who raised the alarm.

The survivor said he and 39 others had left the Bahamas’ Bimini islands the night before and that the boat capsized in the rough weather conditions, the Coast Guard said.

A huge rescue mission was launched to look for other survivors but was called off one week later after a total of five bodies were discovered.

Associated Press contributed to this report