(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 […]
(AP) The European Union and [its] border agency Frontex have helped Cyprus streamline procedures to return migrants who have had their asylum applications rejected amid soaring numbers of arrivals, the country’s interior minister said Tuesday. The Standard Operation Procedures for Returns have […]
(AFP) If he wasn’t making good money smuggling irregular migrants to the European Union by sea, Ibrahim himself might have joined the growing exodus from crisis-hit Lebanon. “If I didn’t work in this profession, I would have left, just like so many […]
(AFP) Pope Francis on Saturday blamed the EU’s nationalist divisions for a lack of coordination on migration as he began a landmark trip to Greece, aiming to improve complicated relations with the country’s Orthodox Church. Francis said that Europe was “torn by […]
(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) France has agreed to help initiate talks between Cyprus and French-speaking African countries for a deal to take back their citizens whose asylum applications have been rejected, the Cypriot interior minister said Saturday. Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said his French counterpart […]
(AP) The European Union should take “specific actions” to stop Belarus “pushing” migrants across its border into Polish territory, Poland’s president said on Thursday. President Andrzej Duda didn’t outline what those actions might be, but said he’s hoping for assistance beyond what […]
(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 […]
(AFP) Cyprus said Friday it is in a “state of emergency” because of an inflow of Syrian migrants that has flooded its reception centres, appealing for help from the European Union. Cyprus has this week faced a “daily wave of migrant arrivals” […]
(Kathimerini) Turkey must resume the return of irregular migrants from Greece “without delay,” the European Commission’s enlargement chief, Oliver Varhelyi, said on Tuesday. “It is important for Turkey to resume returns of irregular migrants from Greece to Turkey without delay, and avoid […]
(AP) Lebanese troops aborted early Sunday an attempt to smuggle dozens of Syrian migrants to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, the military said. The attempt to smuggle 69 Syrian citizens comes as Lebanon is witnessing a severe economic and financial crisis that […]
(Anadolu) Athens has “no right” to appoint the chief Islamic cleric, or mufti, of Muslims living in Greece according to the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey’s president said on Friday. “How can you do that? We don’t appoint the patriarch,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan […]
(Reuters) The head of the European Commission said it will make a proposal to Turkey to ensure the flow of funding for refugees that the country hosts, adding that Ankara must however respect human rights and the rule of law. Ursula von […]
(Kathimerini) Ankara accused Athens on Tuesday of violating the rights of its Muslim minority, which it calls “Turkish,” and of pursuing policies against Turkey, saying Athens should instead “abide by international law.” In a statement issued after a three-hour meeting of Turkey’s […]
(AP) The interior ministers of the five Mediterranean countries on the front line of mass migration to Europe want their EU partners to share the burden more equitably. “We can no longer be punished for our geographical position,” Malta’s Byron Camilleri said […]
(AP) The interior ministers of the five Mediterranean countries on the front line of mass migration to Europe are meeting in Greece to discuss the European Union’s policies as the bloc works toward a new migration pact. Ministers from Italy, Spain, Malta, […]
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