Cyprus: Around 18,000 migrants repatriated since 2023

Deputy Minister for Migration and International Protection, Filippos Ioannidis, said that in 2024, Cyprus registered 6,100 migrants who entered the country irregularly and repatriated nearly 11,000, reported the English language edition of the Greek-language newspaper Kathimerini, KNews.

This trend has continued into 2025. In the first two months of the year, reports KNews, Cyprus registered just 368 arrivals, compared to 2,610 voluntary returns and deportations.

In January, the Cypriot authorities announced that they would be concentrating on the issue of migrant returns when they take control of the rotating EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2026, reported the Cyprus Mail.

The issue of returns is a broader EU-wide concern. Last week the EU Commission announced plans to increase return numbers and establish so-called return hubs outside EU territory. However, the location and number of these hubs have not yet been disclosed.

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Hoping more Syrians will return home

Cyprus has also expressed hope that the number of Syrians living in Cyprus as a result of the war will begin to decrease too as more and more decide to return home.

At the end of January, Cyprus said there were about 900 migrants living in the reception centers, located in Pournara, Kofinou and Limnes. They hoped that the decrease in the number of arrivals registered in the country would also end up reducing the overall numbers needing to stay in the reception centers.

Back in January, Ioannides promised that introducing the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, due to be rolled out in 2026, would be his country’s presidency’s top priority. “We are working towards this and will work hard and methodically, as it is our long-standing position that such a thorny issue should be comprehensively managed by the EU,” Ioannides said during an interview with the Macedonian News Agency, reported the Cyprus Mail. Over the last few years, Cyprus has worked hard with the EU to try and bring more stability to the region.

The island is situated in the eastern Mediterranean and is the first EU country of arrival for many leaving Syria and Lebanon by boat. Other migrants arrived in the country by flying to Turkey and then transferring to the Turkish-controlled northern part of the island. From there, migrants attempt to cross the Green line that divides the two parts of the island that were separated in 1974 after an attempted Greek military coup, aiming to unite the island with Greece, which led to a Turkish invasion of the territory and fighting. The island was and still is made up of Greek and Turkish-speaking Cypriots.

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Maintaining a firm approach

The Republic of Cyprus is part of the EU but the northern part of the island, officially recognized only by Turkey, is not part of the bloc.

The government’s approach to migration, reports KNews, is based on five key pillars. Stricter border controls to reduce the numbers who arrive in the Republic without the correct papers; speeding up asylum application processing, “to prevent system abuse;” cracking down on illegal work and human smuggling networks; improving reception facilities while addressing local community concerns; and finally “enhancing legal migration to support sectors in need, such as agriculture, hospitality and tourism.”

The government told KNews that they had gained some “breathing room to process asylum applications,” as a result of these policies, but promised to maintain a “firm” approach “focused on deterrence, faster deportation,” in order to continue to have a “sustainable approach” to legal migration in the future.