Coastal authorities are on alert on Tuesday after a boat with 95 irregular migrants was confirmed to be the first of an organised wave of hundreds of further arrivals.
Director of the Deputy Ministry of Welfare Loizos Hadjivasiliou, speaking on CyBC’s morning programme, told the state broadcaster that this was an unprecedented development and preparations were being made to process the expected surge, as well as intercept boats before setting off from their starting point in Lebanon.
The first boat of 95 arrivals was spotted off the coast of Cape Greco making its way to the island form a village in Lebanon on Sunday night. Members of the coast guard met and escorted the vessel to Larnaca marina where they processed the passengers, 73 men, 14 unaccompanied minors, two women, and four children, before transferring them to the Pournara reception centre.
The majority of the passengers, 93, were Syrian refugees, while two were Lebanese. A 30-year-old man was arrested after evidence was obtained identifying him as the boat’s operator.
“This is the first time this situation has happened with such a large and organised operation underway from a single point in Lebanon,” Hadjivasiliou told the CyBC, adding that estimates shared by the Lebanese authorities with the ministry of the interior, put the number of people who either have set off, or intend to set off, at around 500.
“All procedures have been activated to verify the numbers and we are in preparation to receive and process any arrivals,” Hadjivasiliou said.
The sudden surge was attributed by the welfare ministry director to favourable weather conditions, as well the fact that migration through the green line had been made more difficult.
“For this reason we are seeing a shift of preference for the sea route from Lebanon,” Hadjivasiliou said.
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the ongoing economic deterioration in Lebanon is largely responsible for the bigger picture of an uptick in numbers, while the primary destination for the smuggler boats has in fact shifted from Cyprus to Italy.
UNHCR reported that in the first nine months of 2022, 2,670 individuals “departed or attempted to depart irregularly from Lebanon” by boat, compared to the same period in 2021 when 1,137 individuals did the same.
“Of those boats, six intended to reach Cyprus, while 26 to reach Italy — a shift in trend from recent years when Cyprus was the primary intended destination,” the agency reported.
“Efforts are focused on preventing the boats from setting off at their starting point in cooperation with the Lebanese authorities with whom the ministry has an agreement of cooperation,” Hadjivasiliou said, adding that “politically, as well as practically” it was easier to stop migrants from setting of than engaging in return procedures.
Earlier in the year, Cyprus and Lebanon agreed on more effective measures to curb irregular migration across the Eastern Mediterranean.
The agreement was reached during Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou’s visit to the neighbouring country in July.
The two countries agreed to create a working group at a technical level to coordinate and undertake measures to manage migration flows and create a network of Lebanon-Cyprus contact points for the exchange of information, including joint patrols.
The cooperation with Lebanon to limit arrivals to Cyprus is effective, Hadjivasiliou said, noting,
“For every boat reaching Cyprus, three or four get intercepted by the Lebanese authorities.”
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