Refugees land on British territory in Southern Cyprus

The Cyprus Ministry of Defense has announced that 140 refugees in two boats landed on Wednesday at the Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri in Cyprus. This marks the first time in the ongoing refugee crisis that vessels have landed on sovereign UK territory.

Located on the southern coast of the island, the base is currently being used to launch British air strikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) bases in Iraq.

The nationalities of the 140 people in the boats have not yet been determined, an RAF spokesman said. According to reports the group included a number of children.

Despite its proximity to Syria, Cyprus had been overlooked up until now in the most recent surge of refugees, most fleeing civil war in Syria, seeking passage to Europe. The last time refugees landed at Akrotiri was 1998, when a group of Iraqi Kurds came ashore. They are now living elsewhere on the island, where their continued petitions for asylum in the UK have been denied.

In 2015 alone, an estimated 600,000 people seeking asylum have arrived in Europe by sea.