80 Refugees Rescued Off Coast of Cyprus
A boat carrying 80 people, around half of them children, was rescued off the coast of the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
Cypriot police told the Associated Press that the passengers were believed to be Syrians who had set sail from the Turkish city of Mersin.
The captain abandoned them in open waters after the overcrowded boat experienced engine trouble, police said.
While Cyprus is only 100 miles off the Syrian coast, the island’s tough asylum policies and relative isolation from the rest of Europe have deterred many refugees from attempting to reach it, with most instead heading to the Greek islands.
Before the rescue, just 28 people had made the crossing to Cyprus this year, compared to 168,000 to Greece, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Over 100 People Found Crammed into Truck in Mexico
Mexican authorities found 121 people crammed inside a truck by smugglers who promised to take them the United States.
Police stopped the truck in the southern state of Tabasco when they heard screams for help and discovered dozens of people, including 55 children, inside suffering from the effects of dehydration and asphyxiation,
Most were from Central America, according to the BBC. Violence in countries such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador has pushed increasing numbers to flee to the U.S.
They said they had paid smugglers up to $5,000 to take them into the U.S. and were told not to eat or drink to avoid detection by authorities. Mexico said the truck driver has been arrested.
French Presidential Front-runner Says He Will Rewrite Border Treaty
Alain Juppé, the favorite to win France’s 2017 presidential election, says he will renegotiate the treaty with the U.K. that keeps Britain-bound migrants on French soil.
Under the 2003 Le Touquet accord, British border officials can operate in France and vice versa. This allowed the U.K. to block migrants and refugees from entering the country from the French port city of Calais, creating a bottleneck of people hoping to find a way across the English Channel. Thousands live in squalid, overcrowded camps on the outskirts of the city, which French authorities have vowed to close by the end of the year.
“We can’t tolerate what is going on in Calais; the image is disastrous for our country and there are also extremely serious economic and security consequences for the people of Calais,” Juppé told the Guardian newspaper. “We cannot accept making the selection on French territory of people that Britain does or doesn’t want. It’s up to Britain to do that job.”
Juppé is expected to be the presidential candidate of the center-right Republican Party and is leading polls to win the election.
Recommended Reads:
- The Economist: Travelling in Hope
- The Associated Press: Syrian Refugees Give Tours of Berlin With a Twist
- Atlantic Council: Ukraine’s Invisible Refugees
- Reuters: Once Asylum Beneficiaries in 1956, Hungarians Now Reject Migrants
- The Guardian: Children Don’t Come Date-Stamped – And That Includes Refugees