“Carnival cruises rescues migrants”

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

August 28, 2022 – For the second time in less than four weeks a Carnival Cruise ship had to rescue Cuban migrants floating at sea. The first was an overloaded boat in late July. The latest captured on video sometime last week was even worse.  Six men with no paddles squashed together in what appears to be a piece of furniture or a trunk floating in the Atlantic.

It’s unclear if the makeshift vessel was even treated to sustain prolonged exposure to water, there is no room for the men to move around or even lay down.

The scene was captured on video by Orlando real estate agent Cintia Zingoni who posted it to Instagram. The scene is chilling, the desperate men are cheered on by passengers as they paddle quickly with their hands and other implements toward the massive cruiser.

About the video, Zingoni said, “We found on the high seas these guys who left their country, looking for better opportunities in a neighboring country. From afar, we saw the boat in a precarious situation, without paddle, without safety, people risking their lives in search of better opportunities. It’s heartbreaking, huh? Thank God they had a happy ending!”

Zingoni told CNN later “I felt sad. Everyone on the boat was dancing and having fun and they were dying. That was almost a suicide mission to go inside that piece of wood.”

The US Coast guard has picked up hundreds of Cubans this year, many of them in overloaded small boats usually on their way to the Bahamas or the United States.

A representative of Carnival cruises told CNN the men were treated, fed, and dropped off in Mexico where the cruise had been headed.