Cypriot authorities launched a rescue operation on Monday to save a group of 21 migrants drifting in an ungoverned boat after receiving a distress call.
The crowded boat with 21 onboard – 10 men, nine children and two woman – was located 40 nautical miles off the island’s south-eastern coast, police said.
According to the Defence Ministry, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre received a distress call at 9.32am local time (6.32am GMT) from a commercial ship that spotted a small ungoverned vessel south of Cape Greco, with a large number of passengers onboard.
A marine police vessel was despatched to the scene where it was decided the migrant boat would be towed to Larnaca port further down the coast, where it is due to arrive later on Monday.
The origin of the migrants is yet unknown or where boat sailed from, although authorities believe Cyprus was their targeted destination.
Cyprus has raised the alarm over the number of migrants reaching it shores recently and urged Brussels to do more to help it.
Nicosia says that asylum applications in the first eight months have exceeded 4,500, marking an increase of 55% from 2017, when arrivals also spiked 56% on the previous year.
"Cyprus has reached the maximum of its ability to accommodate migrants and asylum seekers," Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades to European leaders in Austria last month.
Over the past 12 months there has been a steady trickle of Syrian migrants arriving in Cyprus from Turkey and Lebanon.
Cyprus, a European Union member state located 100 miles (160 kilometres) from Syria’s Mediterranean coast, has not seen the massive inflow of migrants experienced by Turkey and Greece.
But recent EU data puts Cyprus top among the bloc’s 28 nations according to the number of asylum applications per capita.
Europe’s highest number of first-time asylum applicants relative to the population were registered in Cyprus, during the second quarter of 2018, according to Eurostat.
Relative to its population, the largest number of first-time applicants during April-June was recorded in Cyprus (1,656 applicants per million population), followed by Greece (1,521), Malta (889) and Luxembourg (703).
