Three third country nationals, aged 42, 20 and 37, were on Tuesday remanded in police custody for seven days for illegal entry into Cyprus and also for assisting others to do the same, police said.

On Sunday night the 42-year-old and the 20-year-old illegally entered Cyprus in Paralimni, also assisting 58 other third country nationals to enter Cyprus illegally by sea, with the intent to take money, police said.

They transported them with an unsafe or overloaded boat, conspiring to commit a felony and break United Nations Convention and Transnational Organized Crime protocols, police added.

Meanwhile, the 37-year-old was arrested in connection with assisting third-country nationals to enter the Republic after 16 migrants arrived by boat on Monday in the Famagusta district.

During questioning, police discovered he was the pilot of the boat and had lived illegally in the Republic in the past.