Cyprus has begun deporting Syrians whose asylum applications were finally rejected, making it one of the few European Union member states to forcibly return Syrian nationals, philenews understands.
The Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection carried out the first forced returns in recent days, working with the police and other state services, as Deputy Minister Nicholas Ioannides had announced it would. Those deported had been living in Cyprus illegally after the International Protection Administrative Court also rejected their applications.
At the same time, the Deputy Ministry’s Asylum Service is moving quickly, on Ioannides’s instructions, to reject manifestly unfounded asylum applications from Syrians and to revoke subsidiary protection from those who already hold it.
Checks on foreign nationals living in Cyprus illegally are expected to intensify in the coming period, with more returns and deportations to follow.
A source at the Deputy Ministry urged those staying in the country illegally to return home voluntarily and to take advantage of any financial incentive that may be available in their case. The source also called on Cypriots who employ or house prohibited immigrants to take responsibility towards society and the country.
The deportations follow the voluntary return of Syrians and their families in exchange for financial incentives. A programme to help Syrians return home, ‘SFAS-B’, ran from June until the end of October, offering financial incentives for families to go back.
Debate over returning Syrians has intensified in many EU countries since the change of government in Damascus in December 2024, and political pressure on governments to act is growing.
Background
Ioannides announced on Sigma TV on 27 October that forced returns would begin for Syrians who no longer have the right to stay in Cyprus. He said more than 5,000 asylum applications from Syrians had been rejected since December 2024, that about 6,000 Syrians had left Cyprus voluntarily and that more than 6,000 others had said they intended to return. He added that two assisted voluntary return programmes had been run.
An earlier scheme, announced, offered 2,000 euros per adult and 1,000 euros per child to Syrians who withdrew their asylum claims or gave up their protection status, with applications open from 2 June to 31 August that year.
That May, Cyprus stopped granting asylum to Syrians automatically and began assessing each application individually. Ioannides also said that month that Syria had agreed to take back its nationals intercepted at sea while trying to reach Cyprus.
Cyprus had suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrians in April 2024, after a sharp rise in boat arrivals from Lebanon.
The UN refugee agency and the Council of Europe have urged Cyprus to stop pushing back migrants arriving by boat, which Cyprus denies. In October 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Cyprus had violated the rights of two Syrians who were intercepted in its waters in 2020 and returned to Lebanon without their asylum claims being processed.
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