Image: IAKOVOS HATZISTAVROU (AFP)
Around 350 masked people attacked migrant shops and the people themselves, threw incendiary devices and stones and set garbage cans on fire, the Cyprus Times newspaper reported on Saturday. The police used tear gas, five people were injured, there were 13 arrests.
According to media reports, the masked people are right-wing extremists. Right-wing extremists had already attacked migrants in the small town of Chloraka last weekend. Television pictures showed passers-by running to safety while the masked people chanted “Migrants out of Cyprus” and rioted. On Friday evening, President Nikos Christodoulidis spoke of “shameful pictures”, as reported by the broadcaster RIK. On Saturday morning, a crisis meeting took place in the presidential building with the responsible ministers, the police, civil defense and the fire brigade.
Most asylum applications across the EU
According to the Cypriot Interior Ministry, refugees and migrants now make up six percent of the population. Measured by population, the small island republic also has by far the highest number of asylum applications per year in the EU. The refugee camps are overcrowded, and ghettos have formed in many places where people live in poverty. These conditions serve as a reason for the riots for the ultra-right.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 after a Greek coup and Turkish military intervention. The Republic of Cyprus has been a member of the EU since 2004. As long as there is no solution to the division, EU law and regulations only apply to the southern part of the island. Around 900,000 people live there and around 300,000 in the north. In recent years, Cypriot governments have repeatedly complained that migrants from Turkey travel legally to northern Cyprus and from there cross the green border to southern Cyprus and thus to the EU.
Source: Nachrichten
