A large number of refugees, thought to be Syrian, rescued by the cruise ship Salamis Filoxenia in the Mediterranean are refusing to disembark on Cyprus as they say they want to reach Italy, the BBC reports on its website.

The ship rescued 345 people from a small vessel in the Mediterranean, of whom 65 disembarked the ship in the Cypriot port of Limassol. The others remain on board, refusing to go ashore, as they want to reach Italy, the report said.

The ship was carrying some 300 Russian passengers, who had to be put up in hotels in Cyprus and whose cruise was cut short, the report continued. The ship belongs to Salamis Cruise Lines, a Cypriot company. It is of 16,600 gross tons and it was built in Finland in 1975 as Gruziya, one of five Belorussiya class cruise ferries.