Ferry brings more people fleeing Lebanese clashes

NINE Lebanese nationals and 41 European citizens disembarked from the ship Blue Dawn at Larnaca harbour at 6.30am yesterday.

This is the first organised transport of people from Lebanon to Cyprus since the recent unrest in the country.

The ship sailed from Lebanon, carrying its passengers to safety following the clashes between Hezbollah and the government which begun early last week.

Police and civil defence members were present at the docking area to assist the incomers.

Harbourmaster Pampis Vassiliou said that “some of the people will leave for other destinations, and others will stay in hotels until the situation in Lebanon calms down.”

Clashes have died down over the past couple of days and there is new hope of a compromise solution between the government and Hezbollah.

Asked whether more people from Lebanon were on the way, Vassiliou said that they had not received such information.

“However, there is a possibility that the ship will return to Lebanon transporting foreigners from Cyprus to Beirut,” he added.

The port from which Blue Dawn sailed continues to remain closed, but is expected to re-open today.

On Wednesday, Cyprus banned private yachts transporting passengers from the island to Lebanon for security reasons.

Director of Interior Ministry Lazaros Savvides said that four ministries were involved in the efforts to accommodate a possible influx of people from Lebanon and that there was a common committee working on the issue.

Savvides was speaking at the signing of a Cyprus-Lebanon Protocol, after a July 2002 agreement between the two states.

The agreement allows the re-entry of nationals, who enter or reside illegally in either of the two states, into their home country.

Savvides said that the agreement had nothing to do with the current situation in Lebanon and that it was coincidental that it was being signed now.

He added that the government would look to sign similar protocols such with other neighbouring countries since these help facilitate the peaceful co-existence in the region.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.