In the port of KythiraKapsali, 237 will remain Immigrants who reached the island within 24 hours in three sailing boats. Mayor Efstratios Charchalakis emphasizes that there is no possibility of accommodation on the island due to the lack of infrastructure, and expresses concern that the island is included in the traffickers’ plan as a possible place to leave people. “The last case of immigrant arrivals was at the beginning of September 2021,” he emphasizes. “How suddenly three boats came up in 24 hours? Kythera is on its way from Turkey to Italy and this is critical,” he stresses.

Failure to accommodate

According to Mr. Charchalakis, he received assurances from Ministry of Immigration and Asylum that immigrants will be moved from the island today. In terms of accommodating immigrants, the mayor of Kitira refused to open the school for a few days because “schools are ready to open in a few days. There is no possibility of accommodation, as repairs will be required later,” he concludes.

Three sailboats on the island. Three Turkish citizens arrested allegedly as human traffickers.

However, three Turkish nationals, one of whom was a minor (30, 29 and 17 years old), were arrested yesterday, allegedly as human traffickers, who boarded a ship to go to Athens. The three youths were spotted by the Kythera Coast Guard along with 94 migrants where they were arrested.

In particular, as the Coast Guard emphasizes in a statement, “Early Wednesday morning, Kitera Port Authority officials were informed by the Kitera City Police Department that there were sufficient numbers of foreigners in the Piso Gialos area of ​​Kapsali. The Coast Guard immediately rushed to the scene, where, with the assistance of the police, they found a total of 97 foreigners (15 women and 82 men) of various nationalities, of which 55 were minors, on the Piso road network. Yialos.

A few hours later, at noon, another boat was seen at the Kapsali pier on Kythira. There were 73 people on board, including two Russians and most of the citizens of Iraq and Iran, who were also taken to the port of Kapsali. Meanwhile, yesterday morning, less than 24 hours after the first arrival, a third boat carrying 67 migrants also arrived at Kitira. The boat moored in Limnionas, the people disembarked and were subsequently discovered by the authorities.

Volunteer groups active on the island offered food and water to the migrants and mobilized them to help.