US Coast Guard hands over 25 boatpeople to the Dominican Navy

San Juan.- The US Coast Guard on Monday repatriated 25 Dominicans to a Dominican Navy patrol boat after the undocumented travelers  were spotted in the Mona Passage on a yola-type boat headed to Puerto Rico on Saturday.

It said the interception occurred Saturday on the high seas between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, in which five of the boatpeople who were part of the group were detained for repeated attempts to enter US territory illegally.

“The repatriations were made after a United States Customs and Border Protection patrol aircraft detected immigrants on the night of May 29 traveling aboard a 25-foot boat in the Mona Pass,” the US Coast Guard said in a statement.

Officers from the San Juan Coast Guard sailed to the area and took on the immigrants, who were then handed over to a Dominican Navy patrol boat.