© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Officers stand on a Cyprus Port and Marine Police vessel in Ayia Napa Marina, Cyprus December 6, 2023. REUTERS/Yiannis Kourtoglou/File Picture
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By Michele Kambas
NICOSIA (Reuters) – As document numbers of Syrian refugees attain the shores of Cyprus, the Nicosia authorities desires the European Union to think about declaring components of their war-torn homeland protected to repatriate them to, the Cypriot inside minister mentioned.
“Starting a discussion to re-evaluate the issue of Syria is crucial for us,” Minister Constantinos Ioannou informed Reuters in an interview.
The international ministry was getting ready to boost the matter formally with Brussels, he added.
Amid rising battle within the Center East, the Mediterranean island is bracing for an extra inflow of refugees and asylum-seekers, additional straining assets, he mentioned.
“We have five times more migrants than any other frontline member state,” Ioannou mentioned. Information exhibits most are from Syria.
Cyprus has mentioned it’s increasing its capability to host refugees but it surely desires its EU companions to revaluate its insurance policies.
Ioannou mentioned this included beginning a dialogue on the standing of Syria and whether or not it’s protected for refugees to return there, in addition to higher assist for Lebanon, which hosts a whole bunch of hundreds of refugees.
He cited a report by the European Union Company for Asylum (EUAA) in February this yr which mentioned two Syrian governates – Damascus and Tartous – have been assessed to have “no real risk for a civilian to be personally affected by indiscriminate violence”.
Greater than 5 million individuals are estimated to have fled Syria throughout greater than a decade of civil struggle, with most going to Lebanon and Turkey. Though the battle has now settled right into a stalemate, with President Bashar al-Assad’s forces accountable for many of the nation, refugees preserve leaving.
Cyprus grew to become a migrant hotspot after the Turkish springboard to the Greek islands closed in a 2016 EU take care of Ankara.
Asylum purposes in Cyprus peaked at round 21,565 in 2022, the best since information started in 2002. Cyprus noticed 1,043 Syrians arrive by boat in October, a three-fold improve on final yr. In November, it recorded 795 arrivals, nearly triple that of Nov. 2022.
A part of the surge is all the way down to the anomaly on Cyprus itself. From 2019 to 2022, the island grew to become the frontline of a brand new migrant route from Africa, when hundreds entered the unrecognised Turkish Cypriot north on scholar visas, and have been then smuggled by way of a ceasefire line to the internationally-recognised Greek Cypriot south.
That backdoor has been nearly sealed by tightened safety alongside a 180-km “green line”, bringing general arrivals down by two-thirds this yr. However authorities fear that with one door shut, one other would possibly open.
Authorities say arrivals of Syrian refugees is gathering tempo. In calm seas, it may possibly take a small fishing boat 18-20 hours to get from Lebanon to Cyprus.
“In the last two years there has been a dramatic increase, with its peak since August this year,” mentioned Superintendent B’ Ioannis Artemiou, head of the port and marine police unit of Famagusta.
Migrants regularly come ashore on the jutting outcrop of Cape Greco within the east of Cyprus, traversing the 100 mile (185 km) distance from Syria or Lebanon.
Ioannou mentioned Cyprus was in shut contact with Lebanon, which had intercepted “a lot” of vessels. Cyprus has provided Lebanon technical help and joint patrols and believes the EU ought to provide its neighbour extra direct help, he mentioned.
He additionally floated the thought of “safe zones” exterior the EU the place asylum requests may very well be examined. Italy, he mentioned, has already introduced a plan to construct centres in Albania.
The European Fee didn’t reply to a request for remark.
In Geneva on Wednesday, the United Nations refugee chief informed a world discussion board on refugees that the Israel-Hamas battle in Gaza may spur extra displacement within the wider area.
