Students coming to TRNC for study uses the opportunity to seek asylum in south Cyprus

It has been reported that around 70 percent of people arriving in North Cyprus on student visas have migrated to the south of Cyprus to claim asylum.

This was made known by Greek Cypriot Minister for the Interior, Constantinos Ioannou to The Washington Post on Thursday last week.

According to the report, student visas issued by the TRNC are “by far” the most popular method used by migrants to reach Cyprus, the minister said.

Some 70 per cent of migrants arriving in south Cyprus to seek asylum this year used a student visa issued by the TRNC, he added. They are mainly acquired by migrants from sub-Saharan Africa as the preferred method of claiming asylum in south Cyprus. 

Migrants cross the 180 kilometre-long buffer zone to apply for asylum in the south to be able to receive the benefits afforded to asylum-seekers under international and European Union laws and regulations.

Migrants do not apply for asylum in North Cyprus because there is no international agreement to provide it and won’t enjoy benefits afforded to asylum seekers. They would also face deportation to Turkey.

Ioannou said most migrants who opt for this route are from sub-Saharan Africa.

Some 95 per cent of all migrant arrivals in Cyprus come from the north, according to interior ministry figures. Of the 3,665 migrant arrivals so far this year, 3,485 crossed from the north.

To curb this issue, Greek Cypriot authorities are in the process of installing electronic surveillance gear at the crossing points. Furthermore, 300 guards will soon start patrolling sections of the buffer zone. Ioannou said the guards will act as a visible deterrent force, and identified smugglers could face arrest, but they will not push back migrants northward because this could contravene international and EU law.

According to the minister, asylum applications have risen 490 per cent since 2017, with the percentage of either asylum applicants or individuals granted international protection has reached 6 per cent of the island’s population. This is six times the average compared with other European front-line states.

Last year there were 21,565 new applications, and from January to March this year a further 3,182.

Repatriations have also been stepped up — from 1,272 to 7,680 last year. Over 2,700 repatriations took place in the first four months of this year.

As part of EU-approved measures to tackle migration flows via the east Mediterranean, Cyprus aims to use all diplomatic and political tools at its disposal as an EU member to get Turkey to help put a stop to buffer zone migrant crossings, according to Ioannou. He said the EU is also in touch with airlines using Istanbul airport to help stem such arrivals, while a “senior EU official” is expected to visit Cyprus later this month to gauge progress.

Cyprus is ethnically divided between Turkish Cypriot in the north and Greek Cypriot in the south.