Cypriot authorities impound ship to determine if those on board are migrants
Athens — Authorities in north Cyprus have impounded a ship chartered by an antimigrant group, and have held its crew for questioning while the status of a group of Sri Lankans on board is being investigated. Members of the Identarian movement, which says it wants to protect Europe’s identity from mass immigration, sailed from Italy last week heading for the Libyan coast with 20 Sri Lankan trainee sailors on board. It said it intended to monitor humanitarian operations there. But the vessel, the C-Star, instead headed to Cyprus, where it was impounded because of conflicting accounts of whether the Sri Lankans were trainees or migrants, several Turkish Cypriot sources said. Five Sri Lankans on board have since sought asylum, human rights activists said. At the port of Famagusta, Turkish Cypriot authorities were told that the 20 Sri Lankans had ended their training period and would be returning to Sri Lanka via Ercan airport in northern Cyprus. But Faika Deniz Pasha, an associate of th...
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