Total number of evacuees remains unknown

AS OF YESTERDAY, 11,500 people fleeing Lebanon had already disembarked at Cyprus ports, according to Foreign Minister George Lillikas, although it remains unknown how many of them remain on the island.

With hotels approaching full capacity and government agencies stretched to the limit, five government ministers met yesterday to discuss an action plane to handle the ever-growing number of people fleeing Lebanon as Israeli firepower continues to pound the country.

Barely 200 kilometres by sea from Lebanon, Cyprus has become the central hub for the evacuation effort, with both Limassol and Larnaca ports admitting hundreds and sometimes thousands of evacuees each day.

After the inter-ministerial meeting, the Cyprus government requested that other EU countries open their borders to evacuees from Lebanon, as well as sending airplanes to Cyprus so that their nationals can immediately depart upon arriving at the island.

If the situation continues to worsen and large numbers of Lebanese refugees arrive in Cyprus with nowhere else to go, then Cyprus could face serious difficulties housing so many people, although the foreign minister said there have been no requests yet made for Cyprus to accept refugees.

Lillikas said that there has been a “dramatic increase in requests from a large number of non-European countries that are hoping to use Cyprus for the evacuation of its citizens.” Those countries include India, Sri Lanka, Mexico and the Phillipines.

“Without the help of other European countries [by providing aircraft to immediately transport nationals back to the home countries] we will have difficulties to say the least,” Lillikas said.

Lillikas noted that other countries have been covering most of the costs involved in evacuating their citizens.

Attending yesterday’s meeting was Foreign Minister George Lillikas, Interior Minister Andreas Christou, Defence Minister Phivos Klokkaris, Education Minister Pefkios Georgiades, Communications and Works Minister Haris Thrasou and Permanent Secretary of the Justice Department Andreas Tryfonides.

The Education Ministry has offered about 25 schools in the Larnaca and Limassol districts to temporarily shelter those arriving from Lebanon.

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.