Two port police boats have been sent from Cyprus to patrol off the coast of Lebanon for migrant boats, following two boat arrivals a day ago.
The two boats arrived on Monday, follow a week of consistent vessel arrivals.
According to information from the interior ministry, this the first mission of Cypriot ships to international waters following a mutual understanding reached with Lebanon last week.
The ministry said that all actions are being taken to address the acute problem of migrant flows from Lebanon in consultation with the authorities of the neighbouring country.
The two vessels, ‘Alasia’ and ‘Theseus’ are patrolling about 30 nautical miles from the Lebanese coast and have already spotted the first boats which they have pushed back to Lebanon while informing the authorities of the country.
Over the weekend Cyprus announced that it would also be putting all asylum applications from Syrian migrant on ice.
On Monday, the government also clarified the measures saying that Syrians would still be able to make the application for asylum, but it would not be processed for 21 months.
These measures according to officials were enacted to make Cyprus a less attractive destination for migrants, following consistent flows.
Data from Frontex, the European border force, showed arrivals along the Eastern Mediterranean route, which directly effects Cyprus, have risen by 109 per cent.
Frontex said: “The Eastern Mediterranean edged out the Western African route as the most active path into the EU for irregular migrants in the first quarter, with the number of detections more than doubling to just above 13,700.”
Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou disclosed the statistics in a post on X, revealing that Cyprus completed 3,337 migrant returns so far in 2024, compared to 2,348 returns in the entirety of 2023.
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