The searches of the Police and the Search and Rescue Coordination Center (KSED) for locating a person, who on the afternoon of Sunday, August 22, dived into the sea in the area of Paralimni, from the boat where he was riding, along with 18 other informals, ended without result yesterday. immigrants from Lebanon.
As Captain Andreas Charalambidis, Commander of the Search and Rescue Coordination Center (KSED), told KYPE, "unfortunately, no results were obtained from the investigations carried out under the supervision of KSED, to ».
He added that the management of cases of illegal immigrants often raises issues related to human life, such as in this case "when five of them dived into the sea to escape to shore. The specific person fell into the sea, using sandals and a mask while carrying a life jacket ".
He explained that "from the first moment, efforts were made to rescue the five people, the four were located and collected. However, the fifth person managed to swim, to take advantage of the darkness and it was not possible to locate him afterwards ".
According to Mr. Charalambidis, "the search for the specific person by aeronautical means, continued until yesterday with the last light of day, as provided by the regulations, since it was not located on the coast, nor was it presented to any authority of the Republic of Cyprus. We estimate that this person in order to bring sandals and a mask must have been a swimmer "he said and noted that" from the distance he fell into the water a person can reach the shore within three hours. We hope he succeeded. "
Responding to a related question, he said that "yesterday's operation to transport a crew member of a ship sailing north of Cape Arnaoutis, which was in need of medical assistance, confirmed the correctness of the decision taken by the Council of Ministers about six months ago to recruit twelve nurses. to man the helicopter squadrons, in order to reduce the response time to medical emergencies. The proposal was transferred to the Ministry by the Ministries of Defense and Transport, Communications and Works ".
According to Mr. Charalambidis "the whole team of KSED is excellent, well trained, they are executives of the National Guard, specifically selected, they work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year because the safety of those who fly and sail within the FIR must be ensured Nicosia ".
Cyprus, he said, "has the fourth largest register of the European Union and the twelfth in the world and in addition to the thousand overseas ships flying the Cypriot flag, are monitored by the KSED" noting that "any time they need our help, we provide it and we ensure that another Center is close to them to help them. "