Cypriot marine police rescue 84 Syrian refugees from drifting boat

Cypriot marine police picked up 84 Syrian refugees, among them 37 children and 14 women, from a boat drifting off the northwestern coast of Cyprus, a police spokesman said on Friday.

He said the boat was detected overnight on Thursday about six nautical miles from the shore of Latsi tourist resort and was towed into a local marina.

This was the fourth such incident after two cases of refugees arriving in boats in August and one in September.

Some of the children among the refugees who had suffered exposure and a pregnant woman were taken to hospital.

A spokesman for the local police said the refugees had been at sea since Wednesday night.

He added that the group is made up of families.

Police are investigating whether the people traffickers who had arranged the trip from the southern shores of Turkey are among the people in the boat or had left it after its engine broke down.

Refugees who had arrived previously in boats from Turkey said the traffickers charged each one of them 2,000 euros for the trip to Cyprus.

Cypriot Justice and Public Order Minister Ionas Nicolaou said in August that the authorities had information that about 400 Syrian refugees had gathered in Mersin waiting for an opportunity to come to Cyprus.

He also said that most of them were people who had either been to Cyprus before or have relatives living on the island.

Cyprus has been allocated to take a total of 400 refugees under European Union quotas. Most of the new refugees are expected to seek asylum and stay in Cyprus. Endit