INTERIOR Minister Constantinos Ioannou stood up as the only European official to have asked the European Union (EU) to take a formal position regarding the re-evaluation of safe zones in Syria.
The ethnically divided Cyprus houses nearly a million people in the southern part of the country.
The southern, internationally recognized part of Cyprus is where Syrian migrants seek asylum.
Some 40% of 7,369 migrants who have applied for asylum in Cyprus from January to August 2023 are Syrians.
The conflict in Syria started in 2011 and has been declared an unsafe country ever since, with the current situation making them eligible for international protection status, which in turn enables them to live and work in third countries.
According to the European Union Agency for Asylum, only one of Syria’s 13 regions poses “no real risk” to civilians from indiscriminate violence while another four isn’t “at a high level.”
Cyprus made the proposal to re-evaluate the situation in the Arab Republic as its proximity to the region made it a prime destination for Syrian migrants.
