Authorities say 140 refugees arrive in air base in southern Cyprus

About 140 refugees believed to be from Syria arrived by two boats at a beach at the Akrotiri air base in southern Cyprus, base authorities said on Wednesday.

A base police spokesman had earlier put the number of refugees at about 100.

This is the first time migrants fleeing the conflict areas of the Middle East have arrived directly at the base, which is being used by Britain's RAF Tornados to attack forces of the Islamic State in Iraq.

Britain retained the Akrotiri peninsula on the southern Cyprus shores as a sovereign base area when it granted independence to Cyprus in 1960.

A base spokesman said that authorities have been counting the refugees but added that they had not established yet where they are from.

The spokesman said that Akrotiri authorities are in touch with Cypriot authorities, but it is still unclear whether Britain will transfer the refugees to Britain, keep them on its bases in Cyprus or request Cypriot authorities to accept them.

The Cypriot Civil Defense department said that it stands ready to provide any help for the welfare of the refugees, but it pointed out that it has no direct jurisdiction over them.

In 1998, several Iraqi Kurds arrived at the British base in a fishing boat and have been hosted since then at facilities in Britain's second sovereign base at Dhekelia, near the city of Larnaca, which is used as a barracks area.

Though Cyprus is close to the war zone in the Middle East, it is out of the main route of refugees fleeing fighting in neighboring countries because as an island it does not offer an easy outlet to Europe.

But refugees arrive occasionally in small fishing boats or are plucked from bigger vessels which request help from Cypriot authorities.

Most of the Syrian refugees fleeing the fighting travel to Turkey and other countries, such as Jordan and Lebanon.

Thousands of those who fled to Turkey have subsequently entered Greece, where arrivals have topped 500,000. Endi