Cyprus seeks help from EU as surge of Syrian migrant arrivals from Lebanon continues

On Tuesday (April 2), the coast guard in Cyprus reportedly brought 263 migrants to safety on the east of the island. According to state Cypriot radio, the group was traveling on two overcrowded boats.

These latest rescues bring the number of migrants who have set sail from Lebanon to the eastern Mediterranean island nation since the weekend to around 800.

“There is a serious crisis with these almost daily arrivals,” Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides reportedly said during a cabinet meeting.

On Monday, the Cyprus Times reported that the Cypriot coast guard and several fishing boats helped rescue more than 270 migrants in five small boats over the weekend. By Tuesday, local newspapers were reporting a total of more than 500.

The surge is presumably spurred by milder weather. According to news agency Reuters, the roughly 180-kilometer long sea journey from Lebanon or Syria to Cyprus takes about 10 hours.

News agency dpa reported that the European Union member state’s reception centers are overcrowded. According to Cypriot radio, nearly all the migrants are from Syria, including many children.

Also on Tuesday, the Cypriot National Security Council met as a result of the large number of new arrivals. According to dpa, the results of the meeting were not made public.

In the Republic of Cyprus (RoC), which joined the EU in 2004, around 2,000 asylum seekers reportedly arrived in the first three months of this year. By comparison, the same period of 2023 just saw 78 migrant arrivals, according to official data.

In 2022, some 17,000 migrants arrived irregularly in the RoC, up from some 12,000 in 2021.

Arrivals started to spike in 2021. Since then, the RoC has had the highest per capita rates of first-time asylum applicants among all 27 EU member states.

Read more: Syrian father admits to burying child at sea en route to Cyprus

Cyprus seeks EU help to curb arrival surge

Citing government sources, the Greek newspaper Phileleftheros reported on Wednesday (April 3) that the government of the RoC appealed for vigorous action from the EU, saying the island’s reception capacity was at breaking point.

“The situation is getting progressively worse, and in the past few days we have essentially been experiencing an onslaught of rotting boats and refugees putting their lives at risk,” Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou told Cypriot radio about the increase in arrivals.

“All indications are that it will continue,” he added.

Reuters reported that the RoC is in favor of concluding a deal with Lebanon similar to the one the EU recently closed with Egypt.

In February, the EU and the Egyptian government agreed on closer cooperation and financial aid totaling around 7.4 billion euros in the face of increasing migration.

The fact that Lebanese authorities’ focus on stemming migration at its coastline has waned in recent months amid escalations on the Lebanese-Israeli border was further fueling departures, Ioannou claimed.

According to Reuters, Cyprus has long appealed to its EU partners to declare parts of war-ravaged Syria safe, which could facilitate the return of its fleeing citizens. It also wants EU aid to Lebanon to be contingent upon stopping the migrant outflow, Ioannou said.

With an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees and more than 11,00 refugees of other nationalities, Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees per capita and per square kilometer in the world, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR.

2,800 euros for a crossing

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, who said Lebanon should not “export” its migration problem, discussed the issue with European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

“[Traffickers] just give them a compass set at 285 degrees, food and water for a day and they set off,” Ioannou said.

Based on interviews with refugees, traffickers were reportedly charging around 2,800 euros for a journey to Cyprus, compared with 6,500 euros for Italy.

Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974, when Turkey invaded following a coup widely seen as an attempt to prepare the island for a political unification with Greece. The Turkish-administered northern side declared independence nearly a decade later, but only Turkey recognizes it.

The buffer zone between the northern and the southern parts of the island is monitored by blue-helmet soldiers from the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

Also read: Two men detained for bringing Syrian migrants to Cyprus

with dpa, Reuters