92 immigrants arrive on Cyprus coast

Ninety-two immigrants arrived on the northwestern coast of Cyprus on Wednesday, among them more than 40 children.

Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said that two helicopters and a police patrol boat were dispatched to the region to provide help after it was alerted that a fishing boat full of people was in danger several kilometers of the coast.

The boat was led to a local fishing port at Pomos village, where the community council offered the immigrants food and dry clothes.

Police said there were 92 people, among them more than 40 children, some of them unaccompanied. Six immigrants complained of dizziness and were taken to a hospital at the nearby city of Polis-tis-Chrysochous, a tourist resort popular with British and German visitors.

It is believed that the people on that fishing boat are likely refugees from Syria, because the arrival of the boat followed the monthly pattern of a vessel with refugees sailing off from Mersin, Turkey, for the northwestern coast of Cyprus.

The traffickers leave the boats several kilometers off the Cypriot coast and return to Mersin on a speedboat, according to testimony from refugees. In some cases, they even notified Cypriot rescue authorities about the presence of refugees in the region.

A speed boat with 25 people on board arrived at a remote uninhabited area of the northwestern coast of Cyprus earlier this month and another one arrived at a village last month with 93 people on board, most of them women and children.

The European Union has allocated less than 400 refugees to Cyprus under its scheme to deal with the refugee influx.

Refugees are housed at refugee centers and receive a regular allowance for their essential needs. But the refugee centers are becoming crowded following the recent pattern of regular arrivals. Endit