Four boats carrying hundreds of migrants land at British RAF base on Cyprus

Four boats carrying migrants have come ashore at a British military base in Cyprus, authorities say. It is the first time that refugees have landed directly on what is considered British soil since the migration crisis began. The first two vessels to arrive are estimated to have been carrying about 140 people. It is thought, however, that while a British base, it is classed as Cypriot so the migrants would not be allowed to apply for UK asylum.

We have not established where they are from yet.

A spokesman for RAF Akrotiri

It remains unclear how many were on the other two boats and little is known about their country of origin. Although Cyprus is considerably closer to Syria than Italy or Greece it has so far not seen a large influx of refugees. Britain started using RAF Akrotiri to bomb Islamic State targets in northern Iraq in September 2014. The base is one of two sovereign territories retained by Britain on Cyprus, a colony until 1960.

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