Number of migrants arriving by boat on the increase

Fourteen incidents involving boats transporting irregular migrants have been recorded in Cyprus since May, director of the Search and Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) Andreas Charalambides said on Monday.

Speaking to CyBC, Charalambides added that over 400 migrants had arrived on the island in this way in the past two months.

He said that the latest string of incidents confirms a trend that has been growing for the past years.

“The number of migrants making their way to Cyprus via the sea has steadily increased and it has been for a while,” he said.

“The risk of losing lives in the near future is real and we need to be working in order not to have incidents similar to the one that took place in Pylos, Greece, recently.”

Charalamides was referring to the incident that took place on June 14, when a fishing boat smuggling migrants sank in international waters in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Pylos in Messenia.

The search and rescue effort by Greek authorities recovered 82 bodies, with hundreds more missing and presumed dead.

“Cyprus has not yet seen such incidents, but the numbers of migrants arriving here via boat is increasing every month,” Charalambides said.

He added that, considering the poor condition of the boats transporting migrants to Cyprus, the risk of losing lives off the country’s shores is concrete.

At the same time, however, Charalambides said that the number of migrants arriving in Cyprus via the sea is considerably lower in comparison to other ways.

“At the moment, illegal migrants mainly arrive in the country through the buffer zone after first making their way to the north,” he said.

The director of the JRCC said that coast guards regularly patrol the sea and, in most cases, they intercept boats smuggling people before they reach the shore.

He added that patrolling the entire buffer zone is considerably more difficult and that migrants find ways to illegally enter the country more easily on land.