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Cyprus rescues 101 Syrian migrants off coast
[AlAhram] Cyprus police said they rescued 101 Syrian migrants colonists sighted on a boat off the Mediterranean island's southeast coast on Tuesday.

A patrol vessel located the 33-metre (100-foot) boat 18 nautical miles off the resort town of Protaras.

The migrants colonists were brought to shore on an inflatable and their damaged boat anchored near a fishing harbour.

The migrants colonists had said they set off from Mersin in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
, an eastern Mediterranean route often used by people smugglers.

The migrants colonists -- 88 men, six women and seven children -- were being processed before transfer to a reception centre outside the capital Nicosia.

Nicosia has warned Brussels it has come under pressure from increased migration flows, ranking it top in first-time asylum seekers in proportion to its population.

Cyprus is the first Europe
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
an Union member to permanently host the European Asylum Support Office to help cope with the spike in arrivals.

But the small EU member, located 100 miles (160 kilometres) from Syria, has not seen the same massive inflow of migrants colonists as Turkey and Greece.

Syrian nationals accounted for 33 percent of first-time asylum seekers in Cyprus in the second quarter of 2019, EU figures show.

According to available government data, the number of arrivals and applicants for asylum from January to June last year almost reached 7,000.
Posted by: trailing wife 2020-01-16
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=561182