Syrian held after Cyprus picks up 101 migrants

A 22-year-old Syrian man is in police custody suspected of people smuggling after Cypriot authorities brought 101 Syrian migrants safely to shore, Cyprus police said Wednesday.

The 22-year-old suspect appeared before a Paralimni court on Wednesday and was remanded in police custody for eight days on suspicion of helping migrants enter the country illegally for profit, a police spokesman said.

He was arrested on Tuesday after Cyprus marine police located the Syrians off Cape Greco in a crowded 15-metre craft and towed the boat to a fishing shelter in Paralimni on the south-east coast.

Head of the police operation Petros Zeniou said the migrants were checked by health workers for coronavirus before being brought to shore for processing.

Among the migrants were 43 children and 13 women – nine of the children were unaccompanied, four of the women were pregnant and taken to hospital.

The Syrians – mainly from Idlib and Aleppo – were sent to a reception centre outside the capital Nicosia.

Zeniou said the boat set off from Mersin in Turkey, a route often used by people smugglers bound for Cyprus.

He said an initial police investigation indicated the migrants had paid between 2,000-4,000 dollars each to make the journey by boat from Turkey.

“We are on the alert, there is certainly information that more boats are likely to depart from Mersin,” said Zeniou.

In August, Cyprus requested fellow EU member states to take in 5,000 of its migrants to alleviate the “disproportionate pressures” it faced.

The small member state says it is on the frontline of the Mediterranean migration route with the highest number of first-time asylum seekers per capita of population.

Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said on Tuesday that there were 17,000 asylum applications pending.

But Cyprus, located 160km from the Syrian coast, has not seen the massive inflow of migrants experienced by Turkey and Greece.