Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said Saturday more than 1,800 irregular migrants had arrived in the Republic in October, the vast majority coming from the north through the buffer zone.

Speaking after a memorial service in Paphos, Nouris said that all these immigrants were assisted by Turkey since the flows come through the occupied territories of Cyprus, through Turkey.

At the same time, he expressed his concern over the fact that the profile of the immigrants has changed, as there’s a large number of arrivals from sub-Saharan Africa, which, as he said was an additional problem.

Cyprus has requested the EU to speed up the return procedures and will continue to insist on reaching bilateral agreements between the EU and third countries.

Nouris noted that in 2021, Cyprus had rejected 8,500 asylum applications, but was able to return less than 1,100 immigrants because of the lack of the necessary mechanisms.

He noted that the Government was taking continuous measures, however there’s a deterioration of the situation.