(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 […]
(Reuters) A Cypriot law enforcement vessel was off the coast of Lebanon on Wednesday amid reports that Cyprus is stepping up efforts to prevent Syrian refugees reaching the island on small boats. An advocacy group reported that up to five boatloads of […]
(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 Lebanese caretaker prime minister and the Cypriot president are calling on the European Union to provide financial support to help cash-strapped Lebanon stop migrants from reaching European shores. President Nikos Christodoulides’ visit to Beirut Monday, alongside his country’s interior and […]
(Politico) Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides will head to Lebanon on Monday for talks on migration after the Mediterranean island declared a crisis on refugee flows. “We are indeed in a crisis, but I want to assure you that we will do everything […]
(Politico) Rising numbers of migrants arriving have left Cyprus in “a state of serious crisis,” the country’s President Nikos Christodoulides said Wednesday as he called for the EU to step in. More than 2,000 people arrived in Cyprus by sea in 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) A court in Cyprus on Saturday ordered two men to remain in police custody for six days on suspicion of people smuggling. The men were identified as the drivers of two boats that brought 146 Syrian refugees and one Lebanese migrant […]
(AP) Cyprus is the first European Union member country to repatriate more migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected than have arrived in a single year, the east Mediterranean island nation’s interior minister said Thursday. Constantinos Ioannou told the state broadcaster that […]
(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 […]
(Reuters) As record numbers of Syrian refugees reach the shores of Cyprus, the Nicosia government wants the European Union to consider declaring parts of their war-torn homeland safe to repatriate them to, the Cypriot interior minister said. “Starting a discussion to re-evaluate […]
(Kathimerini) The Cypriot police arrested two Iranians last month, alleging their connection to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards of Iran (IRGC), targeting Jewish citizens in Cyprus. The individuals are currently in custody, with a deportation warrant. This marks the third incident in the […]
(Kathimerini) Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in his speech at the Turkish National Assembly on Monday spoke of “Turkish minorities” in western Thrace and in the Dodecanese being a priority to the Turkish government. “The condition of the Turkish minority of western […]
(AFP) Cyprus has received an influx of 458 Syrian migrants from Lebanon in one week and is bracing for more as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to spread, officials said on Sunday. Authorities said 194 Syrians arrived late on Saturday aboard four boats […]
(AP) Police in Cyprus said Tuesday they had arrested 10 Syrian men in an operation that has dismantled the third people smuggling ring bringing migrants to the east Mediterranean island nation in as many months. The arrests come as Cypriot authorities say […]
(AP) Police in Cyprus said Saturday they arrested four Syrians on suspicion of setting off a small explosive device that caused no damage not far from [the] Israeli Embassy in the capital Nicosia. Police said the four, ranging in ages between 17 […]
(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 […]
(AFP) European Union member Cyprus said Friday it has asked the bloc to review whether Syria remains an unsafe country to which member states should be barred from repatriating asylum-seekers. The move follows a flurry of racially-motivated attacks on foreigners in recent […]
(AFP) Hours before the masked men came, brandishing Cypriot flags and Molotov cocktails, hushed whispers of the imminent rampage travelled down the Limassol seafront strip home to many migrant-owned businesses. Egyptian restaurant owners rushed to bring their water pipes indoors, and a […]
(AP) Cyprus police arrested 13 people after a mob smashed storefronts and set numerous trash bins on fire during an anti-immigration march in the coastal resort city of Limassol, authorities said Saturday. Police said five people reported that they had been assaulted […]
(AP) Police in Cyprus say they have arrested 21 people and used tear gas and a water cannon after a group of Greek Cypriots wearing hoods and brandishing bats tried to attack protesting Syrians in a small village that has been a […]
(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 […]
(Philenews) Nicosia on Tuesday continued staying mum over the thwarting of an alleged Iranian attack against Israeli targets in Cyprus even though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised it. At the same time, Nicosia is reportedly annoyed with Iran, which has […]
(Times of Israel) The targets in an Iranian-planned attack in Cyprus included an Israeli real estate businessman and a Chabad House, as well as hotels and entertainment venues frequented by Israeli tourists, Channel 12 reported Monday. The report named the alleged targets, […]
(Philenews) A terrorist attack on the territory of the Republic of Cyprus, which was believed to have been aimed at killing citizens of Jewish origin, has been prevented. The perpetrators were reportedly the intelligence services, apparently linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards […]
(Kathimerini) One of the two Pakistani nationals arrested for planning to bomb a Jewish restaurant in central Athens, which doubled as a cultural and religious center, has already admitted his part in the plan, Kathimerini understands. The two will face an examining […]
(AP) Less than a week after a deadly migrant shipwreck off Italy, five European Union countries on the Mediterranean Sea pushed back Saturday against their northern neighbors for not accepting asylum-seekers under a voluntary relocation initiative. The ministers responsible for migration policy […]
(AP) A Cyprus court on Saturday ordered the detention for six days of a Syrian man suspected of illegally bringing 21 Syrian migrants to the east Mediterranean island nation aboard a boat. Police said the suspect was arrested after the migrants identified […]
(Philenews) Limassol District Court last week adjudicated an unprecedented case of assault against a 14-year-old Muslim girl who had refused to wear her religious headscarf to school, Philenews reported on Wednesday. The defendants were the teenager’s 41-year-old father and 31-year-old stepmother who […]
(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 […]
(AFP) Cyprus on Monday transferred 48 asylum seekers to Germany under a voluntary pilot scheme that will eventually see 500 relocated to help cope with a surge in migrants, authorities said. The Cypriot interior ministry said the 48 applicants for international protection […]
(AP) Ethnically divided Cyprus ranks first among European Union member nations in the number of migrants it repatriates relative to its population of just over a million people, the country’s interior minister said Thursday. Nearly 7,000 migrants were sent back to their […]
(AP) Four Mediterranean European Union nations have issued a joint statement on a dispute over a deal for Europe to jointly help asylum-seekers. In their statement Saturday, Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus repeated their positions that they “cannot subscribe to the notion […]
(AP) Fighting broke out Friday between two groups at a migrant camp in Cyprus, a melee that left two people injured, set 20 tents ablaze and forced scores of families to flee the facility, officials said. Riot police had to use tear […]
(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) Five European Union nations on the Mediterranean who fear possible waves of refugees driven by hunger out of Africa called Saturday for an end to the EU’s “voluntary” solidarity on migrants and a better way to redistribute the burden of caring […]
(Reuters) Mediterranean countries on major migrant routes into Europe expect over 150,000 arrivals this year as food shortages caused by the Ukraine conflict threaten a new migration wave from Africa and the Middle East. “This year the frontline member states are expected, […]
(AP) Cyprus police on Friday detained two men on suspicion of helping two dozen Syrian asylum-seekers reach the east Mediterranean island nation aboard a rigid-hulled inflatable boat. A court ordered the two men — aged 30 and 28 — held in police […]
(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 […]
(AFP) Cyprus struck a deal Monday with the European Union to help it handle a large migrant influx to the divided Mediterranean island, which Nicosia says is the highest per capita in the EU. The agreement will make it easier for Cyprus […]
(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) The chief of the European Union’s Frontex border agency said Wednesday that the repatriation of migrants is Cyprus’ “most urgent need” and that his organization is ready to facilitate flights to return home people who had asylum claims rejected in Cyprus. […]
(AFP) The small Mediterranean island of Cyprus has an outsized problem with irregular migration, says the interior minister of the EU member state located closest to the Middle East. “For us, this is a state of emergency,” Nicos Nouris told AFP, adding […]
(AP) The repatriations of migrants who have had their asylum applications rejected is essential to easing overcrowding and reducing violence at a migrant reception camp, Cyprus’ interior minister said Wednesday. Minister Nicos Nouris told state broadcaster CyBC that 35 migrants suffered minor […]
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