Associated Press

  The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued 22 Cuban migrants from Cay Sal in the Bahamas, officials said Saturday.

  The migrants were reported by an anonymous phone call to the U.S. Border Patrol on Thursday, according to the Coast Guard.

  Crew members from a Coast Guard cutter were diverted to the island and found the migrants. Medical attention was provided to two children suffering from a minor skin irritation. The migrants were transferred to another Coast Guard cutter, which took them to Bahamian authorities in Freeport on Saturday.

  The migrants said they were dropped off at Cay Sal, one of several desolate islands between Cuba and South Florida, on Nov. 1.

  ''Migrants are often tricked by smugglers and abandoned on these deserted islands to fend for themselves with no food or water after they have paid for their transit and are falsely given the impression a vessel will show up to take them the rest of the way,'' said Capt. James Stark, chief of operations for the Seventh Coast Guard
  District.

  Cubans who reach U.S. soil generally are allowed to stay, but those found at sea usually are repatriated.