Some 170 migrants arrived in the Republic of Cyprus on Tuesday (December 12) after being rescued by the country's coastguard, the German news agency dpa reports. They will be housed in two migrant camps on the small island.

46 minors were on board the three vessels carrying the migrants. 27 of them were unaccompanied. No information was provided about where the migrants departed from or their country of origin.

However, the government in Nicosia is hoping to push the EU to re-evaluate the situation in Syria due to an increase in the numbers of Syrians attempting to reach Cyprus. According to the news agency Reuters, Cyprus' Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said: "Starting a discussion to re-evaluate the issue of Syria is crucial for us."

Cyprus' Foreign Ministry, reported Reuters, is hoping to raise the matter formally with Brussels. Ioannou told Reuters that Cyprus has "five times more migrants than any other frontline EU state," and that data showed that most came originally from Syria.

In addition to pushing for some parts of Syria to be declared safe for return, Ioannou is also calling for more help for its neighbor Lebanon, whose economic and political crisis has propelled more and more people to set off from its coasts towards Cyprus too.

The EU, reported Reuters, has not yet commented on Cyprus' proposals.

Recent arrivals

Less than a week before, some 250 migrants arrived on the shores of Cyprus after being rescued by the country's coast guard. They were in three separate boats that authorities said were thought to have departed from Libya, Syria and Lebanon. 

Cyprus' camps have been over capacity in the past months after the arrivals of migrants fleeing the conflict in Gaza. An arrival of more than 500 Syrian migrants from Lebanon after the outbreak of the conflict prompted the government to increase the capacity of its camps earlier this winter.

Cyprus is located closer to neighbors Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and Syria than Europe, making it more difficult for migrants who land there to make it to the mainland than migrants who arrive on islands closer to the continent.

Migrants make up a significant proportion of the country's population — around 5%. Statistics released in recent years have shown that the number of asylum applications received in Cyprus is much higher than other countries in the bloc when adjusted for population size. 

Application decline in 2023

With that said, however, applications for asylum in Cyprus declined significantly this year – down 52% between January and October 2023 from the same ten-month period in 2022. 

This drop comes after 2022 saw asylum applications increase in Cyprus to a level then-president of the European Parliament called "really worrying" in November of that year. At the time, the president of Cyprus accused Turkey of encouraging the migration of its citizens to the country to destabilize it. 

Cyprus was split in 1974 following a Turkish invasion on the island. 

Since then, the two sides have been divided by a 180-kilometer-long UN buffer zone. Only Turkey recognizes the Turkish Cypriot government in the north. The Greek Cypriot government in the south is recognized globally and is part of the EU.

With dpa and Reuters