Refugees leave cruise liner in Cyprus

Officers from an elite squad boarded the Salamis Filoxenia cruise liner in a pre-dawn operation on Friday, clearing it of the migrants, local police said. The migrants, thought to be refugees from Syria, agreed to disembark following hours of negotiations with police officials.

"Everything went calmly," Interior Ministry official Marinos Papadopoulos said.

The group of mainly women and children were to be taken by bus to a reception center near the Cypriot capital, Nicosia, where they'll receive shelter and medical attention.

A cruise ship had rescued the 345 migrants from a small trawler that put out a distress signal on Thursday after it ran into rough seas near the southern Cypriot coastal town of Paphos.

The liner had been returning to Cyprus from the Greek island of Syros when Cypriot search and rescue authorities requested the ship change course to assist in the rescue operation.

But when the vessel docked at the port of Limassol later on Thursday, only around 65 migrants disembarked, along with some 700 paying passengers, police said. The rest of the group refused to leave, and demanded to be taken to Italy.

Trip cancelled

The cruise ship had been due to leave Cyprus on Thursday night to take around 300 Russian tourists to Haifa, Israel. Salamis Cruise Lines Managing Director Kikis Vassiliou said the trip had to be canceled, incurring losses of "several hundred thousand" euros.

"We did our outmost to save their [the refugees'] lives, to give them food, support and now they want to destroy this company," he said.

The Cypriot Defense Ministry said the migrant boat was "most likely" transporting "civilian refugees" from war-torn Syria, which is located 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Cyprus.

Risky journey

More than 2,500 people have drowned or gone missing this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from the Middle East and North Africa on rickety and overcrowded boats, according to the UN's refugee agency.

Some 500 people were feared dead earlier this month after their boat sank off Malta. Just 10 passengers survived.

In August 2012, seven Syrians, including two children, drowned when the boat they were sailing to Cyprus sank off the island's north coast.

nm/sb (AP, AFP, dpa)