Cyprus cannot accept more Syrian refugees, Christodoulides says
A week after Cyprus suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrians due to a sharp increase in arrivals, the president of the Mediterranean island, Nikos Christodoulides, warned that the EU country cannot accommodate more refugees from the war-torn country.
“We are not in a position to take any more Syrian refugees. We are at our limit and can no longer cope with this flow of refugees,” Christodoulides said in an interview with the Editor Network Germany (RND) on Sunday.
“That is why I asked the EU for help and decided to suspend the examination of new asylum applications. For us, this is a matter of national security. We are no longer able to respond to this challenge,” he said.
According to Cypriot officials, over 2,000 Syrian refugees arrived by sea from Lebanon in the first three months of 2024, a stark increase compared to just 78 arrivals during the same period the previous year.
Christodoulides highlighted that seven percent of the population of the Republic of Cyprus are currently refugees and emphasized the necessity to initiate deportations of refugees directly back to Syria.
This would necessitate persuading the EU that certain areas in Syria are now safe for migrants to return.
“We expressly demand that certain areas in Syria be classified as safe regions,” he said.
