New boatload of migrants dumped off Protaras

By Charlie Charalambous

FEARS raised by the local authorities that a tidal wave of illegal immigrants from Lebanon would soon sweep across the island came true yesterday.

Fifteen illegal immigrants were arrested in the Protaras area just after midnight yesterday after being dropped off by a fishing boat.

Police said that the eight Indians, one Pakistani, two Sri Lankans and four Kurds said they had paid $3,000 each for the 18-hour journey from the Lebanese port of Tripoli to Cyprus.

But police believe a total payment of $45,000 is unrealistic, and are suspicious of the true circumstances of how and why they arrived on the island.

None of the immigrants possessed travel documents, police said.

Earlier this week, Justice Minister Nicos Koshis said that the security forces had received information that around 5,000 people – deemed as “undesirable” by the Lebanese government – were targeting Cyprus as a place where they could find work.

The government also fears that the Lebanese authorities are ready to kick out their illegal immigrants, with Cyprus being their first port of call.

Furthermore, government officials say that Beirut has made it quite clear that it will not accept any immigrants back, if they are not Lebanese nationals.

Informed newspaper reports said Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides was preparing to visit Lebanon to raise concerns about the growing number of illegal immigrants entering the island from the neighbouring country.

Police yesterday took the 15 to court for a remand order, but the hearing in Larnaca was postponed until today because of a lack of translators.

On June 29, 113 near-starving people, including eight children and two pregnant women, were rescued off the Syrian-flagged trawler Rida Allah after leaving Tripoli two weeks earlier.

Twenty-five have since been sent home, and the remaining Africans and Asians are awaiting a similar fate.

Michaelides said last week that the expense of accommodating the boat people at a Limassol hotel and in holding cells had so far cost the government over £1 million.

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.