BEIRUT yesterday promised to step up measures to block illegal immigrants heading for Cyprus, just hours after the island’s coast guard headed off a vessel suspected of carrying 500 boat people from Lebanon.
The suspect boat was spotted about 20 nautical miles off Cape Greco – a favourite drop-off point for illegal immigrants — late on Sunday night. The boat was intercepted by the Cyprus coast guard and prevented from approaching the island. It was not clear yesterday where the unwanted vessel had gone on to.
In Nicosia yesterday morning, Interior Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou had a meeting with the visiting head of the Lebanese security forces, Jamil El Sayed. El Sayed promised “more and more measures” would be taken to prevent illegal immigrants from setting off for Cyprus from his country.
Christodoulou welcomed the promises of tougher action, noting that “thousands” of illegal immigrants left Lebanon for Cyprus every year. The Minister said it was impossible for Cyprus police to keep them all out.
Arrivals of boat people have become an increasingly large thorn in the government’s side over the last two years. The majority of these immigrants are said to leave from the coasts of Lebanon and Syria. Nicosia has agreements with both Beirut and Damascus for the return of immigrants shown to have set out from Lebanon or Syria.
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.
