2 weeks ago
The number of Syrian refugees leaving Lebanon is apt to support rising arsenic donors trim backmost connected aid, nan caput of nan U.N.'s migration agency warned Tuesday, arsenic unit builds complete their presence connected nan Mediterranean land of Cyprus.
Amy Pope, head wide of nan International Organization for Migration, said that astir 3,000 Syrians person near Lebanon since January, compared to 4,500 for nan full of past year. Many of them person headed to Cyprus, astir 110 miles away.
CYPRUS' PRESIDENT CALLS ON EU TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST INFLUX OF SYRIAN REFUGEES FROM LEBANON
In response, Cyprus suspended nan processing of asylum applications by Syrian nationals earlier this period owed to nan ample numbers. Cypriot authorities person reportedly dispatched constabulary patrol vessels conscionable extracurricular Lebanese territorial waters to thwart exile boats trying to caput to Cyprus.
Migrants aboard a Cyprus marine constabulary vessel arsenic they are brought to harbor aft being rescued from their ain alloy disconnected nan Mediterranean land nation's southeastern coast, astatine Protaras, Cyprus, connected Jan. 14, 2020. The number of Syrian refugees leaving Lebanon is apt to support rising, nan caput of a apical world agency moving pinch migrants warned connected Tuesday, April 30, 2024, arsenic unit builds owed to their presence connected nan Mediterranean land of Cyprus. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Pope told The Associated Press that governments are cutting assistance backing to agencies moving pinch group who person fled Syria, which has been ravaged by civilian warfare for complete 13 years, and that this is making things worse. At nan aforesaid time, immoderate Lebanese communities are getting tired of hosting them.
"My interest is that we will spot it go progressively difficult for Syrians to enactment safely successful Lebanon. And erstwhile group cannot enactment safely successful 1 place, they do what each quality being will do, is look wherever they tin go," Pope said.
"The numbers are ticking up," she said. "Lebanon is becoming a little hospitable spot for them to stay."
Asked why assistance to Syrian refugees is being cut, Pope said: "Because nan number of conflicts has gone up, because nan Syrian populations person been displaced now for almost 10 years, because nan assumptions are we can’t proceed to money Syrians erstwhile we person expanding numbers of group from different parts of nan world."
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The Cypriot authorities says a crumbling Lebanese economy, coupled pinch uncertainty brought connected by nan Israeli-Hamas war and caller tit-for-tat strikes betwixt Israel and Lebanon, has resulted successful a immense number of boats overloaded pinch migrants – almost each Syrians – reaching nan island.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen are owed successful Beirut connected Thursday to talk a imaginable assistance package.
