Migrants rescued off north Cyprus

Turkish Cypriot and Turkish coast guard boats rescued 43 migrants, including children, off the coast of north Cyprus on 18 December after their vessel broke down.

The incident was only reported in the Turkish Cypriot press on Thursday.

Turkey’s Mersin governor’s office said the Turkish Cypriot coast guard teams got information on a boat experiencing technical difficulties 24km off Morphou.

Two boats were then dispatched to rescue the migrants of which 42 were found to be Syrian nationals and one Iraqi.

The migrants, along with the boat, were then taken to a port in Turkey’s Mersin province.

 

Turkey is one of the main routes migrants have used to try and cross into Europe since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.

 

 

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.