Authorities in northern Cyprus announced on Saturday that they had rescued a group of 175 Syrians aboard a boat after they were prevented from landing in the southern part of the island. According to the police of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), the refugees, including 69 children, were collected overnight after the sinking of their boat about ten meters from the shore, in the south of the peninsula of Karpas. They were then taken to a gymnasium in the Iskele district (northeast of the island) where they were to undergo medical examinations, the police added.
Friday, the Cypriot authorities had prevented the boat, whose provenance was not known immediately, from landing in the south of the island. Cyprus is only 100 kilometers from Lebanon and 80 kilometers from Turkey, two countries that have together hosted more than four million Syrians fleeing war in their country. In recent months, several boats of migrants from the Turkish city of Mersin (south) have arrived in Cyprus.
An island cut in half
The Mediterranean island has been cut in half since the 1974 invasion of the north by the Turkish army, in reaction to a coup aimed at attaching Cyprus to Greece. The Republic of Cyprus, a member of the European Union, exercises its authority only over the southern two-thirds of the island, where the Greek Cypriots live. Turkish Cypriots live in the TRNC, which is not recognized by the international community.
According to the European Statistics Office Eurostat, Cyprus is the EU country with the highest reception rate for refugees, compared to its population of less than one million. In August 2019, Cyprus had asked the other EU member states to welcome 5,000 migrants who arrived on the island, in order to alleviate the "serious challenges" that this country says it is facing.
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