Filenews 12 November 2021 - by Dora Christodoulou
Undaunted and determined to end up in Italy are the 61 irregular migrants who on Wednesday due to the rough sea ended up in the port of Kato Paphos and who last night literally ran away under the nose of the Police to continue their journey.
The Port finally spotted the boat of 61 Lebanese and Syrian migrants sailing west off Kato Pafos, after escaping from the port of the city, however all efforts to convince these people to be towed back to the harbour for safety reasons primarily due to the adverse conditions prevailing in the sea area, were ignored.
The irregular migrants insisted that they would continue for Italy, as was their original plan to sail last Tuesday night from Tripoli in Lebanon, and refused any settlement proposed by the Cypriot authorities. Following this, the coast guard crew that approached the migrants' speedboat supplied them with food and clothing to meet their immediate needs and will monitor the course of the boat until they are outside Cypriot waters.
Late Wednesday afternoon the Lebanese and Syrian passengers of the boat asked the police officers who guarded their boat to provide food and clothing to protect the women and children.
After this happened, to the complete surprise of the police forces, the boat started and sailed from the harbour to the open sea. An alarm was immediately sounded and the Coast Guard began chasing the boat in order to stop it before its exit from Cypriot territorial waters, while the Paphos Police Directorate was also mobilized with strong forces rushing to the square area of the Castle.
Currently the boat is sailing to the south of Greece towards Italy and is being monitored by Greek naval vessels.
