NICOSIA, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Cypriot rescuers picked up 14 migrants from a small boat drifting off the southeast cost of Cyprus overnight on Sunday, the Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) said on Monday.
They said the migrants were 10 men, one pregnant woman and three minors, all from Syria.
The JRCC said it was alerted by a commercial ship which reported that it had spotted a small boat with a large number of people aboard several kilometers off the coast.
A rescue vessel with medical staff and a helicopter were dispatched to the area, where they met the boat early in the night, as it was drifting after its engine broke down.
The woman and the three minors were dehydrated and were rushed to hospital, while the migrants were taken to a refugee centre near the capital Nicosia for processing.
The migrants said they paid about 500 euros each to buy the boat and had made the 200-km long trip from the Syrian-Lebanon border on their own.
