The body of a man has been retrieved off western Cyprus after Syrians who arrived from Turkey by boat said that one among them had fallen overboard. So far this year, close to 6,000 migrants have arrived irregularly in the Republic of Cyprus from the Turkish-administered northern part.
According to police, a group of 44 Syrians -- including two women and four children -- were found wandering in the Peyia area north of the coastal city of Paphos on Thursday (June 2), news agency AFP reported.
The migrants, who reportedly arrived on Thursday morning, told police that a man on the boat they were traveling in had gone missing before they reached the shore. According to AFP, authorities found the body of a man in the waters after launching an extensive rescue operation with a helicopter.
While the body had yet to be formally identified, according to a police official, the missing migrant was reported to be a 24-year-old Syrian.
According to AFP, police believe the Syrians were smuggled from Turkey and dropped off pre-dawn before the boat departed.
After being processed, the 44 migrants will be transferred to a reception center outside the capital Nicosia, AFP reported.
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974, when Turkey invaded following a coup widely seen as an attempt to prepare the island for a political unification with Greece. The Turkish-administered northern side declared independence nearly a decade later, but only Turkey recognizes it and maintains more than 35,000 troops there, news agency AP reported in July 2021.
Read more: Lebanon thwarts attempt to smuggle 69 Syrians to Cyprus
Increase in arrivals, highest per-capita asylum rate
The government of the RoC accuses Turkey and breakaway Turkish Cypriot authorities in the north of orchestrating the arrival of migrants with the help of people smugglers to seek asylum on the island, AP reported.
Indeed, the RoC has seen a spike in irregular arrivals along with one of the highest per capita rates of first-time asylum seekers among all 27 European Union member states (relative to the countries' population size). In 2020, the country of 1.2 million people topped the list with 8,448 first-time asylum requests per one million residents.
So far this year, more than 6,300 migrant arrivals were recorded in the RoC, according to the UN migration agency, the vast majority of them by land from the Turkish-administered northern side. Last year, more than 12,300 people arrived, more than four times as many as in 2020.
In March, nearly 5% of the island nation's population are asylum seekers, news agency AP reported then.
Island nation divided by a buffer zone
According to AFP, the small European Union member state has also repeatedly asked other EU member states for help in dealing with the high volumes of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and elsewhere. It has also asked the European Commission directly to take action over the "disproportionate" numbers of asylum seekers it receives.
Most asylum applicants first arrive in the north and then cross the porous, United Nations-controlled and -patrolled buffer zone to seek asylum in the south. The EU has pledged to help the Cypriot government cope with its migration issues.
The buffer zone -- a ceasefire line that divides Cyprus into the northern and southern parts -- is some 180 kilometers long, up to eight kilometers wide and fortified in places with wire fences. Migrants and refugees seeking to go from the northern part of the island to the RoC need to cross it.
In early May, at least six people were injured in a fire at the notorious migrant reception center in Pournara. And in April, the RoC announced plans to install an electronic surveillance system with the goal to reduce the numbers of migrants crossing the border from the north.
With AFP