Amid the recent surge of Syrian refugees fleeing to Cyprus through Lebanon, the European Union needs to take more drastic measures to help the overwhelmed island nation manage the crisis, the country’s interior minister says.
Minister Constantinos Ioannou outlined in his statement that those attempting the journey are doing so by sea, risking perilous conditions on poorly equipped boats across a large stretch of open water while being charged exorbitant prices by traffickers in the thousands of dollars per person.
“The situation is getting progressively worse, and in the past few days we have essentially been experiencing an onslaught of rotting boats and refugees putting their lives at risk,” said the minister.
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The recent escalation in the conflict at the Israel-Lebanon border, Ioannou argues, has led the Lebanese authorities to no longer control migration flows from Syria. The EU should begin conditioning its aid upon the Lebanese government’s commitment to border enforcement, the interior minister asserted.
Although Cyprus is one of the bloc’s smallest member states in terms of both population and economic output, the country’s geographical position has brought it to the forefront of the almost decadelong Syrian refugee crisis.
In the first three months of the year, some 2,004 people have arrived in Cyprus by sea, compared to just 78 in all of 2023. In the last week alone, 600 people have come, the Cypriot authorities said.
On Tuesday, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides spoke with European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen about the issue and publicly called on Lebanon to not “export” its problem.