Migrant interdiction
On average, the U.S. Coast Guard interdicts 17 illegal migrants at sea every day of the year. That works out to around 6,200 illegal migrants interdicted at sea every year. Of course, this number is just an average, and there are actually many more migrants that have been interdicted in recent years. While many of the illegal migrants interdicted at sea are just trying to get to America to provide a better life for themselves and their families, there are also a substantial number of them that are criminal fugitives from their own countries.
Migrant interdiction at sea is an extremely hazardous operation. Extra care must be taken when handling migrants to prevent the spread of communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, influenza, and so on. Usually, the boarding and security teams wear protective clothing, surgical masks and gloves. Also, each migrant must be "checked in". They are brought onboard and given an initial inspection by the cutter's medical officer, then numbered and processed. Depending on how many migrants a cutter encounters, this check in process can take hours.
While I was stationed onboard the USCGC HAMILTON (WHEC-715) in the summer of 2005, we interdicted an Ecuadorian vessel in the Eastern Pacific Ocean that had 185 illegal migrants onboard. My Cutter's crew consisted of 160 Coast Guard men and women. Having more migrants onboard than crew definitely made for some challenges. Our cooks were now feeding double the amount of people, and we had to create security watches to guard over the migrants, who were camped out on the cutter's flight deck and in the helicopter's hanger. We had the migrants onboard for the three day transit back to Ecuador, where we transferred them to the Ecuadorian Navy.