Limassol, Cyprus - Hundreds of mostly Syrian refugees rescued by a cruise liner in the Mediterranean agreed to disembark in Cyprus on Friday after a standoff triggered by their demand to go to Italy.
A total of 345 migrants, mainly women and children, believed to have sailed from a port in Syria were plucked from a trawler in trouble off the coast of Cyprus on Thursday by the cruise ship.
Almost 700 cruise passengers disembarked from the 157m Salamis Cruise Lines vessel at the port of Limassol, police said, but only 65 of those rescued at sea initially left the ship on Thursday.
The others had refused to budge, the shipping company said.
The situation was resolved shortly before dawn on Friday after more than six hours of negotiations with police who entered the vessel, according to Marinos Papadopoulos, an interior ministry official.
“Everything went calmly,” he said.
Medical and government teams were on hand to assist the refugees at the port, where camp beds were set up for them.
They were “all in good health”, according to the harbour master of the Limassol port, George Ppouro.
The refugees were to be taken by bus to a camp not far from Nicosia.
There they would be able to shower, get clean clothes and rest, according to the Red Cross.
The cruise ship had answered a distress signal from a trawler sailing 50 nautical miles off the Cyprus coast in poor weather conditions, the Cyprus Defence Ministry said.
One passenger said a refugee had told her they had sailed from Syria and been at sea for three days and that their skipper had abandoned them.
“The captain of their boat made a phone call and a speed boat came and took the captain,” said Chrystalla Eflatsoumis, 66.
Among the refugees were “many pregnant women and 20 babies”, she added, describing the sea conditions off Cyprus at the time as “terrible”.
The liner had been en route from the Greek island of Syros to Limassol when it received a call to assist in the rescue operation.
It had been scheduled to set sail again on Thursday evening, but was forced to stay in port as the refugees demanded to be sent to Italy, according to Kikis Vassiliou, managing director of Salamis Cruise Lines.
“We did our outmost to save their lives, to give them food, support and now they want to destroy this company,” he said before the situation was resolved, speaking of several hundred thousands of euros in losses.
About 300 Russian passengers, who had been due to continue their cruise to Haifa, Israel, had their journey cancelled and were put up in Limassol hotels.
The Mediterranean has been plagued by shipwrecks in recent months involving migrants trying to reach Europe from Africa and the Middle East.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 2 500 people have drowned or been reported lost at sea this year trying to cross the Mediterranean.
In one of the deadliest wrecks on record, a ship carrying 500 migrants - including Syrians, Palestinians and Egyptians - was deliberately sunk by traffickers off Malta earlier this month, leaving just 10 known survivors.
Cyprus is located about 100km from the shores of Syria although it has not seen a major influx of refugees fleeing the civil war there.
In August 2012, seven Syrians, including two children, drowned when the boat they were sailing to Cyprus to escape the conflict in their homeland sank off the island's northern coast.
Cyprus has previously been criticised for it treatment of migrants and asylum-seekers.
Amnesty International in March criticised what it termed the “shameful” treatment of migrants and asylum-seekers on the island, saying they were being detained in prison-like conditions for extended periods awaiting deportation.
In 2013, Cyprus was found to have violated the European Convention on Human Rights for attempting to expel a Syrian without giving him the right to a fair legal hearing. - Sapa-AFP