Cyprus arrests two in new people smuggling operation

Two Syrian men were remanded in police custody Saturday for suspected people smuggling after 16 Syrian migrants were rescued after their rubber boat sank off Cyprus, authorities said.

It was the second such incident in as many days.

Police said the suspects, aged 45 and 46, would remain in custody for four days while the investigation continues.

Authorities said they had received information that a boat was in distress 12 nautical miles off the island's southeastern tip at Cape Greco, near the tourist resort of Ayia Napa, on Friday.

Marine police rescued the migrants who were aboard the craft and brought them safely to shore after their boat took on water and sank, the search and rescue center said.

Police said the migrants are in good health and were taken to a migrant reception center outside the capital Nicosia.

Friday's incident was the second day in a row that Cyprus emergency services rescue migrants at sea in the Capo Greco area which is about 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Syria.

Those rescued on Thursday evening were 18 irregular migrants on a wooden boat and another 27 aboard an inflatable craft. They had also come from war-torn Syria.

The eastern Mediterranean island's Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said it had brought ashore 29 men, five women and 11 children who had been afloat off Cape Greco.

Two people, aged 20 and 18, were arrested on suspicion of navigating the two boats.

Cypriot authorities say there has been a rise in migrants arriving by boat, with a 60 percent increase recorded in the first five months of 2023 compared with last year.

They say most migrants arriving on boats set out from the port of Tartus in Syria, which has been ravaged more than a decade of war, although fighting has subsided since 2020.

Cyprus last year registered the European Union's highest number of first-time asylum applicants per capita.

AFP