Hello and welcome to the details of Cyprus suspends Syrian asylum applications as it struggles with arrivals spike and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - NICOSIA (Cyprus), April 14 — Cyprus has suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrians following a sharp increase in irregular arrivals this month, authorities said today.
More than 1,000 people have arrived in Cyprus on boats from Lebanon since the start of April amid deepening tensions in the Middle East. It has triggered calls from Nicosia to its European Union partners to do more to assist Lebanon, as well as reconsider the status of war-torn Syria, which is at present considered unsafe to repatriate asylum seekers.
“This is an emergency measure, it’s a difficult decision to protect the interests of Cyprus,” Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides told reporters.
Cyprus, the EU’s easternmost state and the closest to the Middle East, lies about 160 km (100 miles) west of the shores of Lebanon or Syria. It recorded more than 2,000 arrivals by sea in the first three months this year, compared to just 78 over the same period in 2023.
Advertisement
In practice, the measure means asylum seekers will be confined to two reception camps offering food and shelter, with no other benefit. Those who choose to leave those facilities will automatically forfeit any kind of benefit, and will not be allowed to work, government sources said.
Christodoulides visited Lebanon last week, and is liaising with the European Commission on how Brussels could assist Beirut in halting the flows. Lebanon, in the throes of a deep financial crisis, hosts hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees. — Reuters
Advertisement
These were the details of the news Cyprus suspends Syrian asylum applications as it struggles with arrivals spike for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
