CYPRUS: Police pick up 31 Syrian migrants dropped off by smugglers

Cyprus has picked up 31 Syrian migrants who were dropped off by boat on a remote part of the island's coast, authorities said.

The 31 migrants – who are seeking asylum – were processed by police on Tuesday and transferred to a reception centre in the capital Nicosia.

The Syrians – 27 men, 3 children and one woman – told police that they had each paid $2,500-$3,000 in cash to be brought by boat to Cyprus.

Police said the people smugglers avoided detection and managed to drop off the migrants in bad weather late Monday on a beachhead in the Turkish-held north of the divided island.

They then crossed a United Nations-controlled buffer zone on foot to enter the Republic of Cyprus where they were picked up by police.

Cyprus has warned Brussels it has come under pressure from increased irregular migration flows recently ranking top in first-time asylum claims in relation to its population.

During the first 8 months of 2018, applications for international protection status were up by 55 per cent compared to the same period in 2017, according to official EU data.

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.