Irregular migrants found on beach near Polis Chrysochous (updated)

Two unaccompanied minors were among 31 irregular migrants picked up by police from a beach near Polis Chrysochous early on Thursday, the Cyprus News Agency reported quoting Paphos deputy police chief Michalis Ioannou.

He said that the group was made up of 15 people belonging to four families, two boys aged 16 and 17 who are unaccompanied and 14 adults.

The group told police that they had set off from Mersin, Turkey on Wednesday morning on board a wooden fishing boat steered by two Turks. Each paid $3000.

They came on shore at the area where they were found at around 3.00 am.

Ioannou said the asylum service would decide where they will be hosted, he added.

Earlier on Thursday, Ioannou had told the news agency that at Polis Chrysochous police station had been alerted around 4.55 am that there was a group of people, possibly irregular migrants on a beach nearby.

Officers who went to the scene found 15 men, 12 underage children and four women. All were transferred to the police station, and food and water offered. An ambulance from Polis hospital went to the station should medical care be needed.

A five-year-old boy was transferred to Polis Chysochous hospital with a pain in his arm that was already in a cast.

Members of the aliens and migration department are in Polis to interview the irregular migrants. An interpreter helped police take statements to determine where the irregular migrants came from and what route they had taken to come to areas controlled by the Republic of Cyprus, the news agency added.