Man handed five-year sentence for smuggling migrants into Cyprus

A 24-year-old man was on Monday sentenced to five years in prison after having been found guilty of illegally smuggling people into Cyprus.

He had been arrested on April 13 last year, with the police saying he had captained an “overloaded vessel” and “aided and abetted” the arrival on the island of a number of irregular migrants, one of whom had already had their asylum claim in Cyprus rejected.

His boat’s arrival came amid a wave of migrant arrivals on the island, with the previous day having seen 141 irregular migrants...