HAVANA, Cuba (AFP)—The Mexican navy told AFP Thursday it had rescued a group of Cuban migrants, including several minors, who went missing at sea last week.

The migrants set sail from the western Cuban province of Pinar del Rio on August 11, according to Cuban and US media.

Their whereabouts had been unknown since.

Fears for their safety had grown amid reports they were running short of supplies.

“We rescued the Cubans,” the navy source said, putting the number of passengers found at 15, including four minors.

A Cuban man living in Mexico, whose two children were traveling on the boat with their mother, told Univision on Monday that the boat was low on fuel.

Cubans seeking to leave the communist island have for decades risked their lives in flimsy boats crossing the treacherous Florida Straits to the United States or across the Caribbean to Mexico.

Their journeys often end in tragedy or disappointment, with hundreds of migrants drowning over the past decade or being sent back by the coast guard.

Since Washington imposed an energy blockade on the island in January, already grim living conditions on the island have become calamitous, with most areas subsisting on just a few hours of electricity per day and food, water and medicine all in critically short supply.