Thirty people, 25 of whom are illegal immigrants, were yesterday arrested during a large scale police operation involving three districts.
The immigrants, the majority of them Syrian, were arrested during an operation involving officers from the Limassol, Larnaca and Famagusta districts as well as the police headquarters, Assistant Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou said.
Specifically 20 were arrested in Limassol, seven in the Famagusta district and three in Larnaca. Of the 30 arrested, five were remanded in custody for arranging the illegal immigrants’ transportation into Cyprus. Four were remanded in Limassol into eight-day custody and one was remanded in Larnaca into six-day custody, police said.
“We have specific information involving individuals in Syria as well as the occupied areas, and as you might understand there are difficulties in taking action against them,” Papageorgiou said.
He said local authorities were in constant touch on both a political and police level with the Syrian authorities in an effort to clamp down on the illegal immigrant ring.
“And if it’s possible to confiscate the boats used to transport the illegal immigrants,” he said.
Papageorgiou said he did not have any information on the number of immigrants expected to try and come to Cyprus from Syria, but that there were a large number of Palestinians and Iraqis reportedly in Syria who were prepared to leave the area.
“They are not destined for Cyprus. There is that possibility though,” he said.
Papageorgiou also said he could not rule out the possibility that the smuggling ring involved legal migrants who lived in Limassol’s Turkish Cypriot quarter and transported illegals from the occupied areas.
“Our information regards small time movers who are in the free areas, the ring is set up and when the transfer of illegal immigrants is organised then certain individuals are tipped off to go and collect four or five people,” he said.
He said the police did not yet have information on whether or not the individuals who met the migrants were responsible for setting up the whole thing up.
