The MoD has released images of the refugees looking well. It said the incident highlights the need “to provide humanitarian assistance in Syria and neighbouring countries; to disrupt the trafficking gangs and to address the root causes of instability that cause people to seek a new life elsewhere”.
The European Union is calling for another extraordinary summit on the migrant crisis. A statement from EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s office on Wednesday said “there is a need for much greater cooperation, more extensive consultation and immediate operational action.” Nations invited to attend are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.
The UN’s refugee agency has confirmed that 114 refugees arrived at RAF Akrotiri in two 13 metre wooden boats. “No rescue operation was necessitated as there was no distress signal prior to their docking,” a statement from the UNHCR said.
It is awaiting further details: “UNHCR is still waiting to receive detailed information from either the SBA or the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Cyprus. UNHCR has not been able to visit the refugees because access to the military barracks would require authorisation from the SBA which we are yet to receive.”
The UNHCR also revealed that “high-level” meetings are underway between British official at the base and Cyprus. It has offered to help mediate.
The UNHCR appears to have a different reading from the MoD of an agreement between Cyprus and the UK on who is responsible for the refugees.
The UNHCR statement said:
Under the terms of the 2003 memorandum of understanding signed between the Republic of Cyprus and the UK, asylum seekers arriving directly onto the SBA are the responsibility of the UK but they would be granted access to services in the Republic at the cost of the SBA.
Earlier the MoD said refugees were the responsibility of Cyprus.
It said:
We have had an agreement in place with the Republic of Cyprus since 2003 to ensure that the Cypriot authorities take responsibility in circumstances like this.
A search and rescue operation is underway off the Aegean island of Samos after a boat believed to be carrying 31 refugees sank earlier today, writes Helena Smith.
The Greek coastguard, which has dispatched two ships to the scene, says 16 people were rescued when the boat capsized in rough waters near the island. Officials with the European border agency, Frontex, and a Greek military naval ship have also joined the search north east of the island for the 15 others who are still missing.
AP has video of that fire at a migrant camp in the Slovenian village of Brezice near the border with Croatia. The camp’s residents were evacuated by police, who say the blaze started when people set fire to blankets in protest at being kept at the camp for more than 24 hours rather than being allowed to continue their journeys to western Europe.
The Greek Cypriot media is now reporting that relatives of the refugees have begun gathering outside the gates of the base’s military zone, writes Helena Smith.
The well-respected Politis newspaper reckons there are 114 refugees in total including women and children and says there are Syrian and Palestinians amongst them.
The gathering appears to suggest that the refugees arrival was part of a well-coordinated plan.
“Relatives of the passengers of the two ships have gathered at the gates of the military base on Akrotiri. According to what they have said, they were informed of the arrival of their relatives and [knew] that there final destination was Cyprus.”
Those on board had told them they had started their journey from Lebanon on boats “carrying Syrians and Palestinians.”
The agreement between the Republic of Cyprus and the bases foresees Cypriot authorities examining any asylum request submitted by those entitled to claim it, local officials said. Those who do not claim asylum automatically fall under the jurisdiction of the British bases.
“Right now the British bases are doing what they have to do based on their own rules, their own laws,” said Loukas Hadjimichael, deputy head of the department of civil defense adding that British officials were cooperating with the island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “We haven’t reached agreement yet over whether we will take them, if we will handle them …. or if they will go anywhere else.”
“Whatever movement takes places within the Republic of Cyprus will happen in collaboration between the ministry of foreign affairs and the British bases,” he said.
The refugees who arrived on Akrotiri, including 28 children, were abandoned by Turkish people smugglers about two miles from the coast, according to the commander of the Cyprus coast guard.
Kyriacos Mavri, commander of the Cyprus coast guard, told the Guardian that 114 refugees from Syria were left to fend for themselves in two fishing boats after travelling from Turkey.
The smugglers left in a fast boat, the refugees told coast guards who came to the group’s rescue.
He said:
The people who were trafficking them abandoned them in two fishing boats about one or two miles from the beach just outside the SBA [Sovereign Base Area]. They left in a fast boat.
The sea was OK. A fisherman raised the alarm, after seeing Syrian type fishing boats. He said it was probably illegal immigrants. We went to the scene and we informed the SBA. We looked for the smugglers but they had disappeared.
Somehow the refugees managed to pilot the boats to shore but I don’t know the detail. We reached them at about 7.15 in the morning.
I was on my way to Nicosia at the time, but my sub-commander handled this case. When the refugees were questioned they said they came from Turkey, but I don’t know where.
We were told they were all from Syria. There were 67 men, 19 women and 28 children. Many of them had iPhones with them and they were very well dressed. Everybody was OK, they didn’t have any health concerns. They are now under the custody of SBA in the British area.
Marvi said the refugees are expected to be transferred to the authorities in Cyprus. “I’ve heard they may be handed to Cyprus, but that’s a decision for the politicians,” he said.
Marvi speculated that the smugglers told the refugees that they were being left on mainland Europe.
They probably told the refugees this is Greece or Italy and then they left. That’s my guess, that’s what they usually say. The refugees don’t want to come to Cyprus, they want to go to Greece or Italy, because once they get to Cyprus they can’t move freely as it’s an island.
So probably they just took the money and sped away. They usually charge them to €3,000 to €4,000 each.
More images released by the MoD of the scenes from Akrotiri appear to show the refugees looking well.
Boats containing a number of migrants and refugees have landed on the shore of RAF Akrotiri. Photograph: SAC Laura Wing/Ministry of Defence
Refugees and immigrants arrive at RAF Akrotiri. Photograph: SAC Laura Wing/Ministry of Defence
British troops, medics and coastal guard officials discuss the arrival of refugees and migrants at RAF Akrotiri Photograph: SAC Laura Wing/Ministry of Defence
Refugees and immigrants arrive at RAF Akrotiri. Photograph: SAC Laura Wing/Ministry of Defence
Refugees and immigrants arrive at RAF Akrotiri. Photograph: SAC Laura Wing/Ministry of Defence
The Ministry of Defence has released images of some of the refugees arriving on Akrotiri. It said as many as 180 people could have arrived.
British troops at RAF Akrotiri talk to refugees who arrived at the base on Wednesday. Photograph: SAC Laura Wing/MOD CROWN-COPYRIGHT 2015
Refugees coming ashore at RAF Akrotiri. It is not known exactly how many people were on the boats or where they have come from. Photograph: SAC Laura Wing/Ministry of Defence
The refugees on Akrotiri will not be released today, writes Helena Smith.
With Cyprus’ Akrotiri base being used as a launching pad for airstrikes against Islamic state militants in Iraq, there are murmurings the refugees could pose a security risk to operations. This is likely to guide the way the refugees are handled over the coming days, well-placed sources on the island told the Guardian.
Insiders, who did not want to be named, said accommodation in the base’s military zone could be found to house the refugees if need be. A spokeswoman on the base, Connie Pierce, said it was “very unlikely” that the media would be given access to the refugees today.
British military police are likely to want to conduct an in-depth screening of the refugees first.
More than 800 French celebrities including Jeanne Moreau Eric Cantona, and the economist Thomas Piketty have urged the French government to tackle insanitary conditions facing migrants at Calais, writes Angelique Chrisafis in Paris.
The group, which also included the director of NGO Médicins du Mond, signed an open letter to the newspaper Libération, said the conditions at the makeshift “jungle” camp were dangerously inhumane.
As temperatures drop, refugees and migrants seeking to get to the UK, are living in precarious make-shift tents on muddy wasteland with a lack of shelter, scarce access to water and not enough food. Aid workers have warned of serious health concerns including outbreaks of the skin condition scabies. The situation, which aid groups have long described as a humanitarian crisis, has worsened in recent weeks as the number of people sleeping rought there has swelled from 3,000 to 6,000.
After the unprecedented appeal by well-known French figures, the French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve will travel to Calais this afternoon for the seventh time in recent months to explain what measures the state is taking to protect the most vulnerable in Calais. He has reiterated that the French state will be “humane” but “firm” on the issue of those in Calais. He said the French figures who signed the appeal were “voicing a concern that I hear and I share.” Cazeneuve is expected to announce in Calais that he will increase the capacity for emergency accommodation for women and children.
Migrants and refugees have at the “New Jungle” migrant camp in Calais, where thousands of migrants live in the hope of crossing the Channel to Britain. Photograph: Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images
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