asylum
Once again, refugees enter the EU via Turkey and Cyprus
Migrants stand behind a fence in a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside Cyprus’ capital Nicosia. Photo: Petros Karadjias / AP / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Cyprus continues to ask the European Union for additional help with the accommodation of refugees. The division of the island makes it easy for people smugglers to bring people into the EU.
Smugglers have once again brought dozens of migrants from Turkey to Cyprus and thus into the EU. On Friday night, the Cypriot police discovered a boat with 41 people on board that had started from Turkey and reached the Cypriot coast near Kato Pyrgos.
As numerous Cypriot news portals reported, citing the police headquarters in Nicosia, all boat occupants are Syrians – including three children. They are doing well and are to be taken to a registry, reported the state radio (RIK).
Smugglers keep bringing refugees to Cyprus from the Turkish Mediterranean coast, which is around 70 kilometers away. The Republic of Cyprus cannot do anything about this until the boats have reached the coast. The north of Cyprus is occupied by Turkish troops and does not allow any controls in the strait between Turkey and Northern Cyprus.
The refugee camps in the small island republic are overcrowded, stresses the government in Nicosia again and again and demands help from the EU. In relation to population size, according to EU statistics in 2020, most asylum applications in the EU were received in Cyprus.