Nicos Nouris, the country’s Interior Minister recently announced that authorities would be introducing additional security measures in order to regulate migrant influx.
Measures to be introduced will include 24-hour-long patrols along the 185-kilometer long buffer zone by both soldiers and the police. Said buffer zone is very strategic since it is what separates Greek Cyprus from its Turkish counterpart. It is currently controlled by a UN peace keeping force.
The island nation has claimed several times about a dramatic increase in the incoming of unregulated immigrants from, who cross over the buffer zone (called the ‘Green Line’) in order to ask for Asylum.
While most of them are from the heavily conflict-ridden Syria, there are other migrants from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and even the African countries Nigeria and Cameroon.
According to statistics, migrants make up approximately 4 percent of the population.