Filenews 17 March 2022 - by Vassos Vassiliou
There are ten countries from which the refugees or migrants arriving in Cyprus come from, as evidenced by a reply by the Minister of Interior Nikos Nouris to the Limassol MP, Marina Nikolaou.
In the year 2020, 25% of the 13,235 asylum seekers (i.e. 3,051) came from Syria, 16% from India, 9% from Cameroon, 8% from Bangladesh, 7% from Pakistan, 5% from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 5% from Nigeria, 5% from Nepal, 4% from Georgia, 2% from Egypt and 14% from various other countries.
Since 2017, the number of applicants crossing into the free areas through the green line seems to be skyrocketing.
The ministry considers that at times about 86% of the arriving foreigners entered the Republic of Cyprus illegally and crossed into the free areas through the "black hole" of the green line. It is also worth noting that based on data from the Interior Ministry, in 2021 a total of 11,564 people entered the free areas from unknown crossing points, through the buffer zone. If we add 705 who arrived by sea from Lebanon and Syria and 16 who arrived from Turkey by sea, then the number of people believed to have arrived illegally is 12,285.
In terms of rejections of applications, in 2015 it was 473, in 2016 676, in 2017 1,209, in 2018 1,260, in 2019 2,053, in 2020 1,730 while in 2021 the number of rejected applications soared to 9,962.
Based on data from the Ministry of Interior, 3,199 applications for international protection were submitted in 2009, in 2010 the applications were 2,882, in 2011 1,770 and in 2012 1,620 applications were submitted. In 2013, 1,246 applications were submitted, in 2014 1,728 applications, in 2015 2,253, in 2016 2,933, in 2017 4,582, in 2018 7,761 were submitted, in 2019 13,648 applications were submitted, in 2020 (year of the coronavirus) 7,094 applications and in 2021 13,235 applications were submitted. Of the 13,235 applications submitted in 2021, 2,453 are considered by the Authorities of the Republic to be legal and 10,782 are illegal.
As far as the current year is concerned, the ministry cites data according to which 86% of applications (1,195) are considered illegal and 14% (191) are legal.
Based on official data, 413 applications were rejected in January 2021, in February 966, in March 1,874, in April 810, in May 766, in June 590, in July 796, in August 729, in September 920, in October 807, in November 657 and in December 634.
According to 2021 data, there were 5,525 pending applications of people from Syria, 2,529 from Cameroon, 2,138 from the DPRK of Congo, 1,793 from Nigeria, 840 from Somalia, 709 from India, 682 from Nepal, 574 from Sierra Leone, 525 from Pakistan, 424 from Iran, 402 from Guinea, 291 from Bangladesh, 257 from Turkey, 196 from Egypt, 176 from Sri Lanka, and 1,702 applications from citizens of other countries.
