Asylum seekers in Cyprus turn to charities amid far-right backlash

A person holds a placard during a protest against new government policies on migration, at Elephteria square in Nicosia, 20 April 2024

Overwhelmed by a major increase in migrants seeking asylum in recent years, Cyprus is struggling to process their cases.

While waiting for their legal status to be determined, most asylum seekers live well below the poverty line, and many rely on charity.

"I am suffering with health issues. Because of that, I am not able to have a normal life and I'm just a single mom," an asylum seeker from Afghanistan told Euronews.

"God forbid anything was to happen to me. Who is going to take care of my son? He's underage."

Most asylum seekers live well below the poverty line. Many ended up on the Mediterranean island under false pretense or unrealistic promises of a better life, aid workers say.

“Smugglers or people along the way will give them bad information, including the idea that if you have a child in Cyprus or the EU that child is automatically granted EU residency or citizenship, and this is not the case," Executive Manager of Caritas Cyprus Elizabeth V Kassini said.

Cranking up the pressure

The country's staunchly anti-immigrant far-right wants more measures to stop new arrivals.

"The number of asylum seekers in Cyprus remains at about 7% in relation to the total number of the population. We have a huge problem here in Cyprus," National People's Front (ELAM) party member Marios Pelekanos said.

ELAM, a Greek Cypriot ultranationalist party, has been labelled as neo-fascist — accusations it denies. Yet, it maintained close ties to Greece's Golden Dawn, a party that ended up getting dissolved after its leaders were doled out prison sentences for participating in a criminal organisation.

In 2013, two of Golden Dawn's members went as far as to say that the now-defunct Greek party was directly financing ELAM.

While it has three MPs out of 56 seats in the Cypriot House of Representatives, ELAM has entered the European Parliament for the first time in June, with one MEP, Geadis Geadi.

Under further pressure from the Orthodox Church and growing social discontent, the government wants to increase voluntary returns.

“We strongly believe we should combat illegal migration because we think that member states should decide, under international law, who is going to cross their borders, and not smuggling groups and traffickers,” Interior Minister of Cyprus Konstantinos Ionannou told Euronews.

Cyprus has already paused the examination of asylum applications from Syrian citizens for 14 months.

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