Cyprus fears migrant influx from Turkey

NICOSIA: Cyprus´ president said Tuesday his country fears a migratory influx after Ankara allowed refugees to leave for the European Union and people massed on the Turkish-Greek border.

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus is split between the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state, and a breakaway Turkish entity in the north, recognised only by Ankara.

"With what is happening at the Greek border with the migrant flows from Turkey, and Cyprus being first in the number of asylum seekers... (relative to) population... we are certainly concerned," Republic of Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades told reporters.

"We want to evaluate what steps we can take so that, without bypassing human suffering... we will be able to prevent efforts to alter the demographic character of the country," he added.

Ankara gave a green light for refugees to head to the EU on Friday, sparking thousands to mass at the Greek border. Turkey hosts some four million refugees and faces another huge influx from the civil war in Syria, where the regime, backed by Russian air power -- is pressing a violent offensive to retake the last rebel-held province of Idlib. But European leaders have insisted Turkey abide by a 2016 deal that saw Ankara agree to stop migrant departures to the EU in exchange for six billion euros in assistance.

The Republic of Cyprus says it is on the frontline of the Mediterranean migration route with the highest number of first time asylum seekers per capita. "There has been a 320 per cent increase over the last two years in the flow of refugees" into Cyprus, taking the proportion of refugees to 3.5 percent of the population, government spokesperson Kyriacos Koushos told reporters on Tuesday.

Noting that the borders of Cyprus and fellow EU member states Greece, Italy and Malta are especially exposed, he urged Brussels to "finally take serious decisions on the issue of migration, regarding refugees from countries with unstable conditions, but also economic migrants." Koushos said that European Council President Charles Michel is to visit Cyprus to discuss the issue.

Anastasiades held a telephone conversation with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday about the migrant situation. Turkey has had troops stationed in the north of Cyprus since 1974 when it invaded and occupied a third of the Mediterranean island in response to a coup sponsored by the military junta then ruling Greece. While the Republic of Cyprus has an increasingly high number of refugees per capita, it has not seen the massive aggregate inflow of migrants experienced by Turkey and Greece.