Migrant numbers pass 150,000 mark

THE TOTAL number of migrants in Cyprus is estimated to have topped the 150,000 mark.

According to statistics released by the Department of Migration yesterday, more than 80,000 are here legally from third countries, mainly Sri Lanka and the Philippines, while 40,000 Europeans are now living on the island.

The rest are here illegally, with many said to be crossing into the Republic via the Green Line.

Applications for political asylum currently stand at 8,010, with numbers steadily rising over the past three years. There have been 1,395 applications in the first six months of this year alone.

Justice Minister Sophocles Sophocleous said that, “the statistics speak for themselves”, and acknowledged that, “there is a major problem, not just in Cyprus but throughout Europe.”

Doros Polycarpou, President of KISA (Action for Equality, Support and Anti-Racism) said that many migrants are being illegally detained by the authorities and that this is a huge problem that needs to be addressed.

DISY Deputy Eleni Theocharous, meanwhile, has called on the EU for assistance, with the organisation said to be in discussions over changing certain immigration procedures at countries’ points of entry.

According to British Euro MP John Grint, “there are probably five to six million undocumented migrants within the major western European countries and it’s not practical or possible to send them all back. What are you going to do with them? You can’t leave them living on the margins of society working in the black economy indefinitely.”

The United Nations has estimated that there are 192 million people currently living in a different country than that of their birth.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.