Cypriot authorities rescue 132 refugees from boat drifting in stormy seas

Cypriot authorities rescued overnight around 132 refugees from a boat drifting in stormy seas off the northern coast of the eastern Mediterranean island, the police said on Thursday.

They said there were 51 minors, including a newly born baby and 20 women among the Syrian refugees, who left from the port of Mersin in south Turkey on a fishing boat. The baby and the mother were taken to a hospital.

The police said the boat was spotted by a helicopter on Wednesday night about six nautical miles northwest Kato Pyrgos, a fishing and tourist resort about 70 kilometers northwest of the capital Nicosia, following an anonymous telephone call to the Cypriot Search and Rescue Center.

An official said the call was made from a mobile with a foreign number, probably by the trafficker who left the boat on a jet ski after it entered Cypriot territorial waters.

He said that the refugees were so tightly crammed in the tiny boat that officials could not accurately count the people on board.

The drifting boat was towed into the marina port of Latsi, a tourist resort in the northwestern region of Cyprus.

The Ministry of Interior said the refugees are being processed before being taken to a refugee center near the capital Nicosia.

Ministry sources said the new boatload of refugees seems to be part of a pattern established by Turkish traffickers since early this year.

There have been at least five cases of Syrian refugees arriving in Cyprus after sailing from Mersin where authorities say about 400 of them have been massed waiting for an opportunity to travel to Cyprus.

The refugees told the police that they paid 2,000 dollars each or 5,000 dollars for every family for the 250-km trip. Endit