Cyprus rescues 60 Syrian migrants stuck on a boat for 6 days. Several are hospitalised

At least seven people have been hospitalised after Cypriot police rescued 60 Syrian migrants found aboard a rickety wooden boat some 55 kilometres off the island nation's southeastern tip, authorities said on Wednesday.

They have been at sea for six days.

Police and army helicopters flew the three children and four adults to a hospital after a passing merchant ship notified Cypriot authorities of the boat's presence off the island's coast in pre-dawn hours.

Three of the children and one adult seemed to have lost consciousness, while the other three adults sustained fractures to their lower extremities, according to police.

The boat was towed to the harbour where the remaining migrants received medical care.

Authorities said the boat had set sail from Lebanon on January 18 and the migrants appeared to have run short of food and water.

Lebanon's coastline is about 168 kilometres from Cyprus.

Although overall migrant arrivals to Cyprus have significantly gone down, arrivals by sea almost quadrupled from 937 in 2022 to 3,889 in 2023, with almost all migrants being Syrian, according to official interior ministry numbers.

Earlier this month, Cypriot Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou again suggested to European Union Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson for the bloc to re-evaluate the safety of certain areas inside Syria to enable the repatriation of Syrian migrants.