A Cypriot court has ordered the detention of two Lebanese men for six days on suspicion of smuggling Syrian refugees to Cyprus illegally.
According to the Cypriot police, the two men, aged 19 and 21, were identified as the captains of two boats that were carrying 146 Syrian refugees and one Lebanese migrant to Cyprus.
The police said that during interrogation, the two men said that they had left the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Thursday, February 22, and that each of them had paid $2,500 for a place on the boats.
One boat was carrying 30 people, including 6 women and 11 minors, while the second boat was carrying 117 people, including 8 women and 17 minors.
The police spotted the boats on Saturday afternoon off Cape Greco, on the southeastern tip of the island, and all the migrants were taken to shore and then transferred to a migrant reception center outside the capital Nicosia.
