Nearly half of the 115 refugees who arrived by boat at a British military base in Cyprus last month have been taken in by the east Mediterranean country after its foreign minister said it would take on a “substantial number”.
Fifty three migrants were bussed to a tented reception facility in Kokkinotrimithia, near Nicosia, on Thursday afternoon.
Month-long background checks on the the refugees, including 29 children, who arrived at RAF Akrotiri in October, were nearly finished, according to a senior Cypriot official, who asked not to be named.
“Our intention is to take everybody but the people we deem dangerous,” he added, but declined to elaborate on the nature of any threat they might pose. Fewer than 30% of the migrants were likely to be rejected on security grounds, he said.
Cypriot media reported earlier this week that unnamed foreign services had requested information from the local security services on at least five migrants suspected of possible connections with terrorist groups.
The migrants have been sheltered under canvas in a fenced off and heavily guarded camp at Dhekelia military base. Most are Palestinian refugees from Lebanon and Syria who accidentally landed at RAF Akrotiri near Limassol on 21 October after paying people smugglers to take them to Greece.
The migrants have dismissed suggestions that their numbers might contain jihadis. Most were just people who just wanted a better, safer life, one told the Guardian.
The Cypriot foreign minister, Ioannis Kasoulides, who was in talks with his British counterpart, Philip Hammond, on Thursday, earlier said he expected a “substantial number of asylum seekers will be received by the Republic of Cyprus”.
