The girl was one of three children in a group of 60 Syrians who were located by a Cypriot search and rescue team on a heavily loaded fishing boat off Cyprus on Wednesday morning (January 24). They had been at sea since January 18.

Two other children who were also unconscious at the time of the rescue remained in a hospital intensive care unit in Cyprus's capital Nicosia, Reuters reported on Thursday morning.

"Unfortunately one of the three children has died. It was a sudden death caused by cardiac arrest," a spokesperson for Cyprus's national health organization told Alpha Cyprus TV.

The other two children, also girls under the age of six, were in a serious but stable condition, according to local news reports.

Stranded at sea

The rescue operation involving helicopters and patrol vessels was launched after a merchant ship reported seeing a small wooden boat about 30 nautical miles off Cape Greco, Cyprus' most southeasterly point.

Cyprus' Joint Rescue Coordination Center said all those on the boat were taken to hospital. As well as the four who were unconscious, three people had lower limb fractures and they were all dehydrated, according to officials.

The migrants had spent a week crammed into the small boat, which appeared in images released by the Cyprus coast guard to be floating low in the water.

Alarm Phone, an emergency hotline and support network for migrants in distress, had reported on Sunday that concerned relatives had alerted it on losing contact with a vessel carrying between 50-60 people and which had left Lebanon on January 18. The group called for an immediate search operation.

On the following day, January 22, Alarm Phone wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that they had "informed all relevant state actors" about the missing group. Two days passed without any news before they received information on Wednesday that the group had been rescued.

KISA, a non-government organization supporting migrants and refugees in Cyprus, said ministers and police had been aware since the weekend that the boat had disappeared. "What have they done or failed to do so that today we have a loss of human life?," the group posted on X.

Hard line on migrants

Cyprus has taken a hard line on migrants and asylum seekers, who comprise around 6% of the population, according to Interior Ministry figures in 2023. As well as arriving on boats from Syria and Lebanon, many migrants enter the southern part of Cyprus by crossing the Green Line between the Turkish-occupied north of the island and the south.

Public antipathy and racism directed at migrants is also high - it peaked last September when right-wing extremists violently attacked foreigners and destroyed their property. While the government condemned the attacks, it was accused of tolerating anti-migrant and racist behavior.

Following Wednesday’s rescue the Cyprus interior minister, Constantinos Ioannou, said "Every human life is precious and we must protect it," the Cyprus Mail reported. He also said the incident highlighted the unnecessary risks people take with smuggling networks.

"This is unfortunately proof of what we have repeatedly said on the dangers faced by people falling victim to traffickers," he said in a statement.

Focus on smuggling

Police said they had arrested a 47-year-old person on suspicion of having been in charge of a smuggling operation, according to the Cyprus Mail.

Ioannou said he would raise the need for better patrols of borders at an informal summit on Thursday with his European Union counterparts. Specifically, his government wants Lebanon’s borders to be monitored by a team from Europol, Lebanese authorities and Cyprus’ migration police, the Cyprus Mail reported.

Cyprus also wants the EU to consider declaring parts of Syria safe, with the aim of allowing authorities to deport Syrians to their country.

Migration experts, including Alarm Phone’s founder Maurice Stierl, have warned of a growing trend of pressing criminal charges against migrants in an effort by the authorities to deter people from attempting to cross borders and to show that they are taking action by clamping down on smuggling.

Also read: Cyprus turns tide on migrant arrival trend

Cyprus, which lies about 185 kilometers from the coasts of Syria and Lebanon, has seen an increase in migration by sea in the past year; it recorded 4,259 arrivals in 2023 compared with 937 in 2022. Nearly all those who arrived by sea last year came from Syria.

Reuters reports that in calm conditions, a small fishing boat can take 18-20 hours to get from Lebanon to Cyprus, in waters subject to sudden swells and wind changes and sea depths up to 3,000 meters.

With Reuters