About 70% of the immigrants who arrived in Cyprus this year have used student visas granted to them by the occupied territories, Interior Minister Konstantinos Ioannou told The Associated Press.
He explained that holder student visas are by far the most popular method used by migrants to reach Cyprus. They then cross the green line to apply for asylum in the Republic of Cyprus.
The Minister mentioned in the same media that most of the immigrants who choose this route are from Sub-Saharan Africa, who depart by plane from Istanbul to the occupied territories.
"The growing percentage of irregular migrants entering the Republic of Cyprus-controlled areas through the green line demonstrates the methods Turkey has adopted to instrumentalize the issue," Ioannou said.
He said migrants choose this route because it is lower risk, relatively cheap and offers them a semblance of legitimacy.
About 95% of all immigrant arrivals in Cyprus are through occupied territories, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior. Of the 3.665 migrant arrivals so far this year, 3.485 passed through the occupied territories.
Regarding the border guards, Ioannou told AP that they will act as a deterrent and those identified as traffickers will be arrested. However, they will not be able to push migrants back to the occupied territories, because this could be against international and EU law.
He added that asylum applications have increased by 490% since 2017. The percentage of asylum seekers and people granted international protection has reached 6% of the island's population.
The minister noted that the Cypriot authorities are focusing on speeding up the processing of asylum applications in order to. Also, repatriations have also increased — from 1.272 to 7.680 last year. More than 2.700 repatriations took place in the first quarter of this year.
Source: Sigmalive
