Spending on benefits has fallen from 49 million euros to about 12 million euros, Deputy Minister of Migration and Internationally Protection Nicholas Ioannides told the House Audit Committee.
He said the migration picture had changed completely since the period examined by the Audit Office.
Irregular arrivals totalled 968 from January to August 2026, compared with 11,920 in the same period of 2022, according to figures presented to the committee. By late September they had reached about 1,110, Ioannides said. New asylum applications fell from 15,154 in the first eight months of 2022 to 1,135 in 2026.
Pending applications
Pending applications stood at close to 24,000 when the Deputy Ministry was set up in June 2024 and are now at about 13,000. “In about two years they have almost halved,” Ioannides said.
Syrians remain the largest group among pending applicants. New applications from Syrians dropped from 6,177 in 2023 to 915 in 2025, and to 169 this year up to August.
Ioannides said the processing of Syrian cases had sped up significantly since 2025, with more than 2,500 applications rejected and several hundred protection statuses revoked. The revocations were not only for offending, he said. After the change of regime in Syria, the factors taken into account when assessing cases had also changed.
Residence permits
Non-EU nationals held 197,055 valid residence permits in Cyprus as of August, according to Deputy Ministry figures. Domestic work accounted for the largest share, with 34,191 permits or 17.4 per cent, followed by migration permits (30,316, or 15.4 per cent), general employment (27,736, or 14.1 per cent) and employees of foreign-interest companies (24,446, or 12.4 per cent).
Returns
The Deputy Ministry reported 6,116 returns between January and August 2026, while total departures in 2025 exceeded 12,000. Returns over the past three years reached about 40,000, according to Ioannides.
