Cyprus On Alert After New Migrant Boat Arrivals

(MENAFN- Famagusta Gazette) A total of 458 Syrian migrants from Lebanon have landed in Cyprus over the last seven days and the island is bracing for more as the conflict in Gaza threatens to spread.

Authorities said 194 Syrians arrived late on Saturday aboard four boats from Lebanon.

The first boat that arrived on Saturday held 110 people, and the second a further 52. Both had been heading for the holiday resort of Ayia Napa.

Cyprus is currently experiencing a rising anti-immigrant sentiment following recent clashes between young Cypriots and hundreds of refugees who had taken over an abandoned tourist complex in the western sea resort town of Chlorakas, next to the city of Paphos.

Around 6,000 immigrants arrived in Cyprus up to now this year, about one-half of the figure registered in the same period last year, and there was an increase in the number of irregular immigrants who were repatriated.

Still, Cyprus has the highest ratio of immigrants to its population of about 1 million, with asylum seekers representing some 6 percent of the island's population.

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