Cyprus jails Syrian man over toddler death on overloaded migrant boat

NICOSIA, CYPRUS — 

A Cyprus tribunal sentenced a Syrian nationalist to 3 years successful situation aft uncovering him blameworthy of causing the decease by negligence of a 3-year-old miss from dehydration aboard an overloaded migrant vessel that was adrift for six days without capable supplies of nutrient and water.

The Attorney General’s Office said Friday the Famagusta transgression tribunal ruled that the 48-year-old skipper had failed to guarantee the information of the 60 Syrian migrants aboard the tiny woody trade that carried nary navigational immunodeficiency oregon due communications equipment.

According to the facts of the case, the skipper had told the passengers astatine immoderate constituent successful the travel to propulsion immoderate remaining bottles of h2o overboard successful a bid to region immoderate indications that the vessel had departed from Lebanon.

The vessel acceptable sail connected Jan. 18, 2024, but an motor nonaccomplishment near the vas adrift for astir a week successful the eastbound Mediterranean, wherever galore of the hopeless passengers began to portion oversea h2o and their ain urine to quench their thirst.

Cypriot authorities had airlifted the small girl, who was accompanied by her mother, to a infirmary aft locating the vessel but aesculapian unit couldn’t prevention her.

The fig of radical arriving successful Cyprus arsenic migrants has fallen precipitously implicit the past 3 years aft the authorities successful the European Union subordinate took a drawstring of get-tough measures. Authorities said the country’s quality to big and accommodate galore thousands of caller asylum-seekers was overwhelmed.

According to the astir caller authorities data, migrant arrivals to ethnically divided Cyprus — mostly done the breakaway Turkish Cypriot northbound wherever authorities authorities can’t workout jurisdiction — dropped from 17,278 successful 2022 to 6,102 successful 2024.

Equally, asylum applications plummeted from a grounds 21,565 to 6,769 implicit the aforesaid clip portion repatriations accrued to astir 11,000 from 7,700.

Considering the autumn of Bashar al-Assad successful Syria precocious past year, Cyprus' Deputy Minister for Migration Nicholas Ioannides said immoderate 40 Syrian nationals connected mean are requesting to either retreat their asylum exertion oregon to revoke their planetary extortion status. Ioannides said immoderate 755 Syrians person already returned to their homeland.

But Cyprus has been taken to task for violating migrants’ quality rights astatine sea. Last October, Europe’s apical quality rights tribunal ruled that Cyprus breached the close of 2 Syrian nationals to question asylum aft keeping them, and much than 2 twelve different people, aboard a vessel astatine oversea for 2 days earlier sending them backmost to Lebanon.