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STORY: Cuban mother Mayra Ruiz wakes up every day wondering if she’ll hear from her son Maiquel Gonzalez.:: Luisa Carelis BerrioHe paid less than $200 for a spot on a homemade boat sailing for Florida in December 2022. The boat, along with Gonzalez and 28 others, disappeared without a trace. For nearly two years, Ruiz has lived in limbo, yearning for any sign of her son - who would now be 28."There could have been a shipwreck, there could have been a tragedy - I don't think so because we haven't had good news, but we haven't had bad news either. They were well prepared, their boat was big, they had life jackets. If the boat sank, how many could have been left floating? And those numerous rafters that came behind, couldn't they see them? Where are they?":: 2022Such voyages - and disappearances - reflect Cuban migrants' desperation to reach the U.S...Amid signs it could tighten immigration rules. Ruiz said her son knew he could never afford the $5,000-plus price tag of the Cubans' preferred route...A flight to Nicaragua and a journey north to the U.S. border. :: Luisa Carelis BerrioSo he jumped at the opportunity to sail the 90 miles across the Straits of Florida.:: 2022But strong currents, tempestuous weather and shark-infested waters mean the risk is incalculable. The United Nations says 626 have died along the route since 2014, branding it one of the five most dangerous migrant crossings globally.Gonzalez, and those with him, are what the organization's Missing Migrants Project call an "invisible" shipwreck.Here is the project's regional monitor, Edwin Viales:"An invisible shipwreck is a shipwreck of a boat with migrants that is believed to have happened, but cannot be verified due to the absence of survivors or any other information about the location of the boat. These cases occur at sea without military authorities, civilian authorities, families of migrants or media being aware of it.":: Martin County Sheriff's Office:: 2021The victims of an invisible shipwreck go uncounted. But cases like this suggest the numbers who die or disappear at sea may far exceed official counts.The U.S. Coast Guard told Reuters "there is not a case that matches this migrant voyage" after reviewing a list of the boat's crew.Neither U.S. border nor immigration authorities had any record of the case. The devastation is felt by the families of all the missing rafters. Like Marbelia Estrada, who lost two adult children on the boat. She maintains that they're alive - even though the local authorities searched for the boat and found nothing.:: Martin County Sheriff's Office:: 2021Upwards of one million Cubans have left the island since 2020, which is roughly a tenth of the population.It's an exodus demographers say has few parallels outside of war.
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