NICOSIA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Eight more irregular Syrian immigrants arrived on the northwestern coast of Cyprus, the police said on Sunday.
Police said they found the eight men aged 24 to 41 on a tourist beach after they crossed the 250-kilometer stretch of the eastern Mediterranean from Mersin, a port city on the Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey, in a speed boat.
Police said one of them walked about ten kilometers from the beach they arrived at to the nearest police station and told them about their arrival.
They claimed that the man who brought them from Turkey returned back after they disembarked.
However, the police said they spotted the speed boat on a deserted beach which is reserved for dogs near the spot where the immigrants were found.
The men were transferred to a refugee center near Nicosia where they will stay until the asylum request is being considered.
According the the interior ministry of Cyprus, more than 4,000 refugees, mostly from Syria, arrived in Cyprus this year, bringing the total number of asylum seekers during the past few years to over 15,000.
