Selected records from the State Archives of the Republic of Cyprus related to the Jewish emigration

The British occupied Cyprus became a strategic backwater until the early 1950s when it became Britain’s main Cold War military base in the eastern Mediterranean. Over 100,000 people attempted to illegally enter Palestine. There were 142 voyages by 120 ships. Over half were stopped by the British patrols. The Royal Navy had eight ships on station in Palestine, and additional ships were tasked with tracking suspicious vessels heading for Palestine. Most of the intercepted immigrants were sent to internment camps in Cyprus: (Karaolos near Famagusta, Nicosia, Dhekelia, and Xylotymbou). Some were sent to the Atlit detention camp in Palestine, and some to Mauritius. The British held as many as 50,000 people in these camps (see Jews in British camps on Cyprus). Over 1,600 drowned at sea. Only a few thousand actually entered Palestine.
The pivotal event in the Ha'apala program was the incident of the SS Exodus in 1947. The Exodus was intercepted and boarded by a British patrol. Despite significant resistance from its passengers, Exodus was forcibly returned to Europe. Its passengers were eventually sent back to Germany. This was publicized, to the great embarrassment of the British government.
One account of Aliyah Bet is given by journalist I. F. Stone in his 1946 book "Underground to Palestine", a first-person account of traveling with European displaced persons attempting to reach the Jewish homeland.
Some 250 American veterans, including Murray Greenfield (of the ship Hatikva), from World War II volunteered to sail ten ships ("The Jews' Secret Fleet") from the United States to Europe to load 35,000 survivors of the Holocaust (half of the illegal immigrants to Palestine), only to be deported to detention camps on Cyprus. [Source: Wikipedia]