57 per cent more asylum seekers

Cyprus saw a 57 per cent increase in the number of asylum seekers in 2017 compared to 2016, Eurostat figures showed on Tuesday.

The European Statistical Service said in 2017 there were a total of 4,475 asylum seekers while in 2016 there were a total of 2,840.

Out of the arrivals the past year, 1,770 were from Syria, 435 from India and 350 from Vietnam.

Meanwhile in the EU, in 2017, 650,000 first time asylum seekers applied for international protection in the member states, whereas in 2016, 1,206,500 first-time asylum applicants were registered, comparable to the level recorded in 2014, before the peaks of 2015 and 2016.

The majority of asylum seekers in the EU continued to be from Syria (102,400 first-time applicants), Iraq (47,500), and Afghanistan (43,600).

The highest number of registered first-time applicants in 2017 relative to the population of each member state was recorded in Greece (5,295 first-time applicants per million population), ahead of Cyprus (5,235), Luxembourg (3,931) and Malta (3,502). In contrast, the lowest numbers were recorded in Slovakia (27 applicants per million population), Poland (79), Portugal (98), the Czech Republic (108) and Estonia (138).

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.