21 arrested after migrant boat reaches Vokolida coast

Vokolida, Cyprus. Twenty-one people were arrested on Tuesday after a migrant boat arrived near the Karpas peninsula village, Turkish Cypriot police said. Police said the investigation is ongoing.

Arrival and arrests

Police told the Cyprus Mail that it appeared all 21 people had arrived aboard the same vessel. Local police officers found them by the coast at around 6.30am.

Earlier, police said the boat had made landfall at a location which was not an approved port.

Recent migration measures

Arrivals of irregular migrants in small boats in Cyprus have become rare in recent months, following measures by the Cypriot government, the European Union and other countries in the region to stem irregular migration to the island.

A €1 billion EU financial support package for Lebanon, signed in May 2024, increased Lebanon’s capacity to house refugees and prevent travel across the Levantine Sea to Cyprus.

Last year, the Cypriot government pursued plans to have some regions of Syria declared safe for migrants to return to. The European Court of Justice blocked the plan in October 2024.

Developments in Syria have since seen the country stabilise, and the Cypriot government now offers a paid repatriation scheme for Syrian nationals who fled to Cyprus during the country’s 13-year civil war.