NICOSIA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — A group of 43 irregular immigrants, among them a woman and a child, were dumped overnight on a deserted beach in the northwestern coast of Cyprus island, police said on Sunday.

They said the immigrants arrived on a small fishing boat which had been under surveillance by police since late on Friday night.

However, when the skipper of the fishing boat realized he had been detected, he changed course and headed to a Turkish Cypriot village where he left the 43 people.

The immigrants were intercepted by the police later, the police said, adding that all immigrants come from Syria.

Turkish troops occupied the northern part of Cyprus in a 1974 military operation in reaction to a coup by the military rulers of Greece at that time.

Cypriot authorities have said that they expect the number of irregular immigrants to exceed 4,000 by the end of the year.