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A father who fled Syria kisses the hands of his children who have come to Cyprus - they still have to wait in a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia (archive image)
Photo: YIANNIS KOURTOGLOU / REUTERS
The Cyprus riot police fired warning shots to disperse a group of around 200 migrants in the resort town of Paphos.
Almost at the same time there were riots late Tuesday evening, according to police, in a reception center near the capital Nicosia.
In both cases, the police officers were therefore pelted with stones.
Several people have been taken into police custody, police spokesman Christos Andreou said on the state broadcaster (RIK).
The causes of the unrest are unclear, it said.
The residents of the Chloraka district complain that a kind of ghetto has formed there, in which hundreds of migrants lived and the police have lost control, the Cypriot media unanimously reported.
The EU island republic of Cyprus repeatedly asks the other EU member states to take in refugees who have arrived on the island.
According to Interior Minister Nikos Nouris, 4,000 migrants arrived in Cyprus in October and November alone.
In the whole of 2021, 12,000 people came to the south, mainly from the north of the Mediterranean island, which was occupied by Turkish troops.
Most EU asylum applications in 2020
In relation to population size, according to EU statistics in 2020, most asylum applications in the European Union were received in Cyprus.
The small island nation is coming under increasing pressure.
People arrive in Cyprus almost every day in boats from Turkey and the Middle East.
The island nation has built an eleven-kilometer barrier along the dividing line between southern and northern Cyprus.
The barbed wire fence stands in the west of the divided capital Nicosia.
Organized smuggling gangs collect, according to the Interior Minister, EUR 300 to EUR 500 in order to bring those seeking protection from the Turkish-Cypriot north over the dividing line into areas controlled by the Republic of Cyprus.
Since a Greek coup and a Turkish military intervention in 1974, Cyprus has been divided into a larger Greek Cypriot part in the south and a smaller Turkish Cypriot part in the north.
Northern Cyprus is recognized as a state only by Turkey.
The EU accepted all of Cyprus as a member in 2004.
mrc / dpa
