The Special National Estia Scheme, which was activated on Tuesday morning by the Ministerial Crisis Management Team of the Republic of Cyprus, has been fully implemented.
The first 85 foreign nationals have already arrived, via Larnaca airport, and are being accommodated in Republic of Cyprus facilities. According to Philenews, the special flight, arranged by Portugal, carried 75 Portuguese, 9 Spaniards and one Cypriot. At 9 pm, according to the same information, a second flight is expected at 9 pm and its passengers will be transferred to the same area until repatriation flights are determined.
It is noted that the Ministerial Group for Crisis Management, which consists of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Interior, and the Minister of Justice and Public Order, held an extraordinary meeting this morning and decided to activate the Special National Scheme for the reception and repatriation of foreign citizens from Israel through the territory of the Republic of Cyprus.
Following this development, the ZENON Coordination Center in Larnaca, where the Search and Rescue Coordination Centre is also located, was activated. The ZENON Centre has in fact become an entry point of the Republic of Cyprus and will be the place where passport and other checks will be carried out on foreign nationals who arrive in our country through the Estia Scheme. They will then be transferred to the selected facilities, where arrangements have been made so that they can stay overnight.
Meanwhile, at Larnaca airport, there is still chaos at both the arrivals and departures areas, while security measures have been further increased due to the very high traffic. A number of emergency flights have already been arranged with the situation constantly changing.
As Hermes Airports spokesperson, Pieris Panagi, told us, “It is a dynamic and changing situation with flights that are constantly changing. We are monitoring it and coordinating similar actions together with all stakeholders.”
