(AP) Cyprus will offer Syrian families money to help them resettle back in their homeland and allow the main income earners to remain on the island nation for up to three years to work as part of a voluntary repatriation program, a […]
(AP) Syria has agreed to take back any of its citizens intercepted trying to reach Cyprus by boat, the Mediterranean island nation’s deputy minister for migration said Monday. Nicholas Ioannides says two inflatable boats, each carrying 30 Syrians, were already turned back […]
(AP) Cyprus and the United Nations agency for refugees on Thursday clashed over allegations that the east Mediterranean island nation continues to engage in so-called pushbacks against boats loaded with migrants departing from neighboring Syria or Lebanon. The clash, which unfolded on […]
(AP) Europe’s top human rights court ruled on Tuesday that Cyprus violated the right of two Syrian nationals to seek asylum in the island nation after keeping them, and more than two dozen other people, aboard a boat at sea for two […]
(AP) The president of Cyprus said Tuesday that he won’t “open another route” for irregular migration by letting through more than two dozen asylum-seekers now stranded in a U.N.-controlled buffer zone that bisects the war-divided island nation. President Nikos Christodoulides told reporters […]
(AP) The governments of eight European Union member states said Friday the situation in Syria should be re-evaluated to allow for the voluntary return of Syrian refugees back to their homeland. In a joint statement, officials from Austria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, […]
(AP) The United Nations’ refugee agency said Friday that Cypriot efforts at sea to stop numerous Syrian refugee-laden boats departing Lebanon from reaching the European Union-member island nation mustn’t contravene international human rights laws or put passengers at risk. Cypriot authorities have […]
(AP) Cyprus said Saturday it’s suspending processing all asylum applications by Syrian nationals because large numbers of refugees from the war-torn country continue to reach the island nation by boat, primarily from Lebanon. In a written statement, the Cypriot government said the […]
(AP) The president of Cyprus said on Tuesday that he has personally asked the head of the European Union’s executive arm to intercede with Lebanese authorities to stop boatloads of Syrian refugees from heading to the east Mediterranean island nation. President Nikos […]
(AP) Cyprus has disrupted an alleged Iranian plot to target Israeli businessmen with the arrest of two Iranian asylum-seekers who were in contact with another Iranian associated with the Revolutionary Guard, a Cypriot official said Tuesday. The official told the Associated Press […]
(AP) Cyprus has formally called on the European Union to re-evaluate which areas of Syria can be declared safe and free from armed conflict so that Syrian migrants can eventually be repatriated there, Cypriot authorities said Friday. Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou was […]
(AP) Cyprus said Wednesday it dismantled a criminal human smuggling ring responsible for bringing boatloads of Syrian migrants from Syria, Lebanon and Turkey. The eastern Mediterranean island nation has seen almost daily migrant boat arrivals in recent days. Cypriot police said three […]
(AP) The United Nations refugee agency said Friday it was “extremely concerned” over the return of more than 100 Syrian nationals from Cyprus to Lebanon without being screened to determine whether they need legal protection and who may be deported back to […]
(AP) Cyprus police investigations support claims by Israel’s Mossad spy service that an Iranian-backed hit squad planned to kill Israelis and other Jews in the east Mediterranean island nation, an official said Friday. The security official told the Associated Press that Cypriot […]
(AP) A Muslim religious leader’s instruction to women to dutifully accept a husband’s “invitation to bed” to procreate has sparked outrage among many Turkish Cypriots, who saw the remarks as an imported encroachment of fundamentalist Islam on their secular community. “We don’t […]
(AP) Several Mediterranean nations said Saturday the European Union’s border agency Frontex needs to work inside third countries to stop smugglers from endangering the lives of migrants by sending them off to Europe on risky boat trips. Top officials from Spain, Greece, […]
(AP) Cyprus is seeking help from the United Nations to stem an “avalanche” of migrants who make their way from the ethnically divided island’s breakaway north across a U.N.-controlled buffer zone to seek asylum in numbers that authorities cannot cope with, the […]
(AP) Cyprus police have arrested five Syrians on suspicion of people trafficking after a police patrol boat plucked them and 32 of their countrymen from the sea when their rickety boats sank close to the island’s southeastern tip. Police say the five […]
(AP) The European Union has asked Turkish Cypriot authorities in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus to toughen up measures aimed at reducing the rising number of migrants seeking asylum in the island nation’s internationally recognized south. An EU official said […]
(AP) Cyprus will install an electronic surveillance system along the buffer zone that divides the island nation along ethnic lines, to stem a surge in illegal immigration through the breakaway north, the government said Tuesday. Government spokesman Marios Pelekanos announced the plan […]
(AP) The war in Ukraine has focused the world’s attention on the plight of millions fleeing the country. But migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and elsewhere continue to reach ethnically divided Cyprus, where authorities say they’re overwhelmed. On the outskirts of the […]
(AP) Turkey “has much to gain” if it works with the European Union to stem migrant arrivals from its airports and shores to the ethnically divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus, a top EU official said Sunday. European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas […]
(AP) Cyprus said Wednesday it will seek European Union approval to stop processing asylum claims from migrants illegally entering the east Mediterranean island nation. Government spokesman Marios Pelekanos said a surge of new migrant arrivals is fueling serious crime, taxing state coffers […]
(AP) The European Union could work out ways to stem the flow of migrants from Turkey to Cyprus and other EU nations when it holds high-level talks in Ankara next month, a top EU official said Tuesday. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva […]
(AP) Austria’s minister for the European Union on Thursday accused Turkey of using migrant flows as a means to pressure the 27-member bloc for its own purposes and warned that the EU won’t be “blackmailed” by any country. Karoline Edtstadler said countries […]
(AP) Cyprus on Monday sent 88 Syrian migrants back to Lebanon after they tried to reach the eastern Mediterranean island nation on two boats. Interior Minister Nicos Nouris told the Associated Press that rescue crews continue to search for one of five […]
(AP) Cyprus wants the European Union’s border agency Frontex to step in and prevent the flow of migrant arrivals from Turkey that authorities say have stretched the eastern Mediterranean island nation’s asylum system to its limits. It’s also asking the EU to […]
(AP) The government of ethnically split Cyprus came under fire on Tuesday over a decision to lay razor wire along a section of a U.N.-controlled buffer zone. It says the move is needed to stem migrant inflows from the island’s breakaway north, […]
(AP) Emmanuel Conteh negotiates the muddy, rutted pathways in shorts and torn plastic flip-flops and says he can’t sleep in his heavy canvas tent at night because of the cold. He laments the “hellish” conditions in ethnically divided Cyprus’ cramped Pournara migrant […]
(AP) Cyprus is launching a multilingual SMS campaign to head off more migrant arrivals by dispelling the mistaken belief the European Union member country is a gateway to the continent, the Cypriot interior minister said Sunday. Nicos Nouris told the Associated Press […]
Thank you for reading Eye on Islamism.