The border protection agency Frontex says irstandard passings into the EU over the Mediterranean rose last year.
The bodies of at least seven people have been recovered off Cyprus after authorities mounted a presentant search and save operation folloprosperg the capsizing of a boat carrying refugees, Cyprus’s state widecaster says.
An unspecified number of people are consentd to be ignoreing while two people were saved on Monday from international waters about 30 nautical miles (55.5km) southeast of the island, the widecaster shelp.
Cyprus’s search and save coordination centre shelp boats and airoriginate were deployed as part of the save operation without alludeing casualties.
In an official statement, it shelp a search and save operation was “ongoing to find ignoreing persons after a migrant boat capsized 30 nautical miles (55 kilometres) southeast of Cape Greco”, referring to the southeastrict-most point of the Mediterranean island.
Several naval helicchooseers and police patrol boats were joind in the search for survivors, the centre includeed.
According to the Cyprus News Agency, one survivor telderly authorities that on board were rawly 20 Syrians who had departed from the port of Tartous, the scene of recent violence in Syria.
The eastrict Mediterranean island of Cyprus is less than 200km (125 miles) from the Syrian and Lebanese coasts and has extfinished been a route for refugees seeking a better life in Europe.
According to United Nations figures, 125 refugees died in the eastrict Mediterranean last year, but the actual figure is anticipateed to be higher.
The European Union border protection agency, Frontex, shelp irstandard border passings into the EU over the eastrict Mediterranean rose last year despite a wideer deteriorate in the bloc.
Nicosia shelp it has the highest number of novel asylum seeker applications in the EU per capita but has handled to presentantly reduce the figure.
Last month, the Ministry of Interior shelp asylum applications dropped 69 per cent from 2022 to 2024 while irstandard maritime arrivals had stopped since May due to harder rulement policies.
The clearhrow of Syrian Pdwellnt Bashar al-Assorrowfulnessful in December has prompted some Syrian refugees to return home. The Reaccessible of Cyprus rulement inestablished that an mediocre of 40 Syrians per day have seeked to return home since then.
The rulement also shelp more asylum seekers were leaving Cyprus than arriving for the first time in its self-reliant history.
