NICOSIA, June 14 (Xinhua) -- A group of 61 Syrian refugees arrived in Cyprus aboard a small boat overnight, the authorities said on Thursday.
Sources said the authorities had information that more refugees are waiting for a boat to make the sea crossing as the weather in the eastern Mediterranean gets settled in summer months.
Cypriot police said that they sent a launch out at sea to escort the boat to port after it was picked up on radar several nautical miles off the northwestern coast of the island before midnight on Wednesday.
The refugees were led to a base of the Marine Police at Kato Pyrgos village and were later transported to a refugee center near the capital Nicosia.
Police said that there were 61 people aboard the vessel, including seven minors and a young woman who said that she would join her husband who arrived in Cyprus in the same way last year.
The majority of the men on board were under the age of 40.
When the police approached the refugee vessel, a 49-year-old man jumped from the boat and tried to swim away.
He was picked out of the sea and based on evidence provided by refugees, he was arrested on suspicion that he was the trafficker who charged 2.000 dollars each person to bring them from the southern Turkish port of Mersin to Cyprus.
A court remanded him in custody pending further investigation.
Nicos Cleanthous, the community leader of Kato Pyrgos where the refugees were originally received, has said he has been informed that in the next few days more vessels with Syrian refugees will arrive in Cyprus.
