A ship of illegal immigrants anchored in Limassol
A spokesman for the Cypriot police said yesterday that a Syrian ship carrying 109 illegal passengers anchored on Monday in the port of Limassol city, in southern Cyprus.
The spokesman elaborated that the ship Rida Allah faced a technical problem south of Cyprus. It was then rescued by a Ukraine ship which dragged it to Limassol, where eight of its passengers were admitted to hospital and others were checked in a hotel in the city.
The spokesman added the passengers are women and children, mostly from Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, Libya and Lebanon, but including citizens from Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Zaire and Congo. The spokesman added that questioning of the ship's captain, Muhammad Mustafa, found that ship took off on June 18 from Tripoli in northern Lebanon and was in international waters between Cyprus and Israel when its engines cut out.
The Cypriot police are trying to learn the final destination of the passengers, which is expected to be a European state.
