The European Union is under pressure is deal with a new migrant crisis that has besieged Cyprus in recent months. Cypriot interior minister Constantinos Ioannou said the country was issuing a “cry for help” to Brussels.
He urged the EU to give millions to Lebanon to help control the exodus of mainly male Syrian asylum-seekers from the Middle Eastern country.
More than 2,000 people arrived in Cyprus by sea in the first three months of 2024, compared to just 78 in the same period last year.
Last week alone, 800, mostly young men, made the dangerous ten-hour journey from Lebanon to Cyprus.
The arrival prompted Cypriot president, Nikos Christodoulides, to declare “a state of serious crisis”.
Mr Christodoulides is expected to hold crisis talks with the EU president, Ursula von der Leyen, in Athens today.
Speaking to The Guardian, Mr Ioannou said: “There has been a very sharp increase. We are in crisis mode, reaching our limits. Most of those 800 were young males. But they also included nearly 100 unaccompanied children for whom we had to immediately provide guardianship.”
The interior minister said EU aid should be given to Lebanon, similar to a recent migrant pact signed with Egypt.
An €7.4bn (£6.4bn) aid package was signed between the EU and Egypt last month in exchange for stemming migrant flows.
Mr Ioannou, who is visiting Beirut for talks tomorrow, said the country’s reception facilities were at breaking point.
The surge in arrivals comes amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.
The military hostilities on the Lebanese-Israeli border have diverted Beirut’s attention away from stemming migration in recent months, according to the Cypriot interior ministry.
The Mediterranean island, with a population of 1.2 million, is the closest EU member country to Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Austria and Denmark are also pushing the EU toward tougher migration policies, and are currently urging the EU to start considering sending migrants back to Syria, an act illegal in the EU.
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