Cypriot officials have reported that hundreds of Syrians who sought asylum in Cyprus over a decade ago have withdrawn their applications in the weeks following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Cyprus’s Minister of Migration, Nikolas Ioannides, told Reuters on Wednesday, February 5, “On average, we have 40 asylum applications submitted by Syrians being withdrawn daily since December 9, 2024.”
He added that between December 9, 2024, and January 31 of the following year, 1,367 Syrians expressed their intention to return to Syria, with 944 of them canceling their asylum applications.
Ioannides pointed out that another 423 individuals renounced their refugee status or subsidiary protection, while 755 of them left Cyprus.
In mid-December, the Cypriot minister announced that more than 1,000 Syrian citizens had retracted their applications for asylum or international protection in Cyprus, as they intend to return to their homeland, while 500 others had already returned.
Ioannides, who was serving as the Deputy Minister of Migration and International Protection at the time, stated after talks with the European Union’s Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs, Magnus Brunner, that Syrians had withdrawn their asylum applications following the fall of al-Assad.
He added, as reported by the Associated Press, that strict policies have borne fruit, as around 10,000 migrants left Cyprus in 2024, either through “voluntary return,” deportation, or resettlement in other European countries.
He noted that the number of new asylum applications in 2024 decreased to 6,769 applications, a 41% reduction compared to 2023, and about one-third of the applications submitted in 2022.
Cyprus has faced repeated criticism for violating migrants’ rights, according to reports from human rights organizations.
In October 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Cyprus violated the right of Syrian citizens to request asylum after detaining them along with more than 20 others on a boat at sea for two days before returning them to Lebanon.
The organization “Amnesty International” had previously urged the Cypriot authorities to protect refugees and migrants from racist attacks and to take immediate action to counter them.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has stated that conditions in Syria prevent it from promoting or facilitating the return of refugees.