Worsening conditions in Cyprus push scores to return to Syria
As life in Cyprus grows increasingly difficult for many asylum seekers, the number of Syrians opting into the island’s “voluntary return” program is going up. So far this year, 114 Syrians have returned, compared to just around 30 in all of 2023.
Nicosia, Cyprus — A minutes’ walk from terrace cafes in the old city of the Cypriot capital, Nicosia, around a dozen Syrian men roll up their blankets and sleeping pads in the courtyard of a mosque. Most have been homeless for months or years.
Two of the men, 24-year-old Eihab al-Fayyad and 28-year-old Muhammad Ahmad, sluggishly walk out from behind the mosque, their eyes sunken with exhaustion. Ahmad has been homeless since arriving and applying for asylum in Cyprus in April 2021, and al-Fayyad since November of the same year.
“In Cyprus, they treat us like animals, not human beings,” Ahmad told Syria Direct.
Al-Fayyad pointed to a discarded takeout container of leftover rice, open and spilling its contents into a patch of grass near the mosque. Sometimes, food like this is their only option for a meal. “Dogs live better than Syrians here,” he said.
Even as thousands of Syrians risk their lives to reach Cyprus by boat from Lebanon and Syria, life in the island nation is becoming unbearable for asylum seekers languishing there with little support. The number of people opting into the Cypriot government’s Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) program and returning to the countries they fled is growing.
So far in 2024, 114 asylum seekers have voluntarily returned to Syria, compared to around 30 in all of 2023, Andreas Georgiadis, the head of the Cyprus Asylum Service, told Syria Direct.
Al-Fayyad fled fighting in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province in 2018. Ahmad, who is Kurdish, fled the Afrin area of Aleppo province in 2013 after it came under attack by Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions. Both first fled to Turkey, where al-Fayyad stayed for about three years and Ahmad for about eight, before boarding boats to Cyprus in 2021, hoping to find a better future in the European Union (EU) member state.
The two men met in Cyprus, and became close friends throughout years of hardship, rarely leaving each other’s sides, Ahmad said. “He is from a different province, but we met each other here and have spent three years together. He became like my brother.”