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Barbed wire across Cyprus’ buffer zone does little to stem irregular migrants’ influx

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Barbed wire has been put up across 11 kilometers of the divided island’s buffer zone to stem the influx of irregular migrants yet their number doubled this year compared to 2021.

This is what Philenews reports citing a debate before the House Interior Committee on Thursday.

The reason given behind the bleak reality is that traffickers – mainly from Turkey – have simply shifted to other points of ingress.

At the same time, residents, farmers and other professionals are protesting against the barbed wire. And the United Nations accuse the Republic of Cyprus of intervening in the buffer zone whose task is to Patrol.

The United Nations considers itself the only party to exercise sovereignty over the dead zone.

Moreover, migrant smugglers who do get arrested are only sentenced to 2-3 months in prison – something that seems not to bother them. So far, 85 traffickers have been arrested.

Right now, around 70,000 asylum seekers have crossed into the Cyprus Republic and are living in cities and villages.

And pressure is mounting at the over-crowded Pournara reception centre for asylum seekers.

Authorities are trying to shorten processing time so that space becomes available for new arrivals.

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