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Located on the edge of Europe, Cyprus has pursued a tough return policy for migrants who enter the island illegally. As the European Union negotiates the final details of its own return law, Cypriot officials are preparing to take a victory lap by the summer.
Diplomats who will take over European Union affairs under the incoming Cypriot presidency of the Council of the European Union will lead negotiations on an EU-wide plan to return more irregular migrants to centres outside Europe.
“Cyprus has implemented a successful program for returns, most of which are voluntary, and we would like to see a strong legal basis that will help other states implement them ,” the country’s deputy migration minister, Nicholas Ioannides, told POLITICO.
With a population of 1.2 million and located near Syria, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries, for many years, Cyprus had the highest asylum applications per capita in the EU.
To deal with these figures, Nicosia in 2024 created a migration policy with a central pillar: its return policy. It has achieved the highest per capita number of migrants returning to Europe, EU data show. Departures are now five times higher than arrivals, Ioannides said.
The Danish Presidency of the Council concluded negotiations on a common position on the draft return regulation within the Council. The new measures would allow EU countries to remove rejected asylum seekers, set up centres to process asylum applications abroad and set up removal centres outside their borders.
Cyprus will now lead the trilogue negotiations between the countries, the European Parliament and the Commission, which are expected to start around March next year, when the European Parliament will agree its negotiating position. Nicosia is looking forward to concluding the talks during its presidency before June.
The EU, earlier this month, also agreed to reduce trade preferences for countries that do not cooperate with the EU on accepting returned migrants.
Cyprus’ policies have made the island nation a target of courts and human rights groups in the past. The European Court of Human Rights has condemned Cyprus for returning Syrian migrants to Lebanon. Lawyers have reported repeated violations of court orders by the Cypriot government to force deportations of migrants. And human rights organizations have repeatedly accused the Cypriot government of violating international law by forcibly returning asylum seekers who arrive by boat.
Cyprus strongly supports the "innovative ideas" that are in the EU plan, Cypriot Minister Ioannides said, including the creation of facilities outside the continent to receive people deported from Europe, so-called return centers.
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