Five individuals injured, migrants and refugees attacked on Friday when an anti-migrant march turned violent in Limassol.
Cyprus police have arrested 13 individuals after a march in opposition to migrants and refugees on the island’s second-largest metropolis, Limassol, turned violent with mobs vandalising property.
Five individuals had been injured in the course of the unrest on Friday night after about 500 individuals took to the streets for the march, the police stated.
Rubbish bins had been set alight and a few retailers had been vandalised, police stated. Witnesses quoted by Cypriot media shops stated some foreigners had been attacked in the course of the march.
Police used water cannon to disperse the protesters, a few of them hooded and holding a banner that learn “Refugees not welcome”.
Rise in violence
The incident got here days after about 20 individuals had been arrested throughout violent clashes between Cypriots and migrants and refugees close to the western resort of Paphos, the place authorities have began eradicating Syrians from a condemned residence complicated.
Video footage on social media confirmed a group of Greek Cypriots chanting “Get out, get out” in the course of the demonstration. It turned violent, police stated, when the Greek Cypriots got here face-to-face with a group of Syrians.
The violence continued after about 500 Syrians held a peaceable counterprotest, in keeping with police, who stated they used tear fuel and water cannon to disperse either side.
European Union member Cyprus says it’s a “front-line country” on the Mediterranean migrant route, struggling to deal with an inflow of undocumented migrants and refugees.
The newest EU information exhibits Cyprus has the very best variety of first-time asylum functions relative to inhabitants in the 27-member bloc.
Authorities stated final week that migrants and refugees comprise an estimated 6 % of the island’s inhabitants. The EU’s common is roughly 1 %.
Refugee camps in Cyprus are overcrowded. In many locations, ghettos have fashioned the place individuals reside in poverty.
‘Embarrassing’ pictures: Cypriot PM
On Saturday, Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides held an emergency assembly to debate the Limassol unrest with the police chief and his justice and inside ministers.
It is the second emergency assembly in a week after Tuesday’s session following the Paphos violence.
“There is not much that can be said other than the embarrassing images we have seen,” a visibly indignant Christodoulides informed reporters. “They don’t have anything to do with coping with immigration.
“If all those involved [in the Limassol incidents] loved or cared about our country, they would not have taken such actions which, above all, insult our country.”
In the final 16 years, 413 racist assaults and incidents have been taken to courtroom in the Greek Cypriot administration, and 125 instances associated to those issues are nonetheless pending in the courts, in keeping with Cypriot newspaper Politis.
Fewer asylum functions
The variety of migrants and refugees making use of for asylum in Cyprus dropped by 53 % over a current 5-month interval, in keeping with the Ministry of Interior information.
More than 10,600 individuals utilized for asylum from March to July 2022, in contrast with 4,976 in the identical interval this 12 months, the figures confirmed.
But police information exhibits a rise in the variety of migrants and refugees arriving by sea, with greater than 500 touchdown on 45 small fishing boats or inflatable dinghies in the previous three months, the overwhelming majority from Syria.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/3/over-a-dozen-arrested-in-cyprus-as-anti-migrant-violence-spreads?traffic_source=rss
