Nicosia/Paphos, Cyprus – After years of simmering anti-migrant sentiment and far-right agitation, violence against asylum seekers and migrants is spiking in EU member state Cyprus, even as civil society groups on the Mediterranean island rally to try and lend them a helping hand.

The trend has been present across Europe, as politicians and political parties have made anti-migration rhetoric and positions part of their platforms in the lead-up to EU parliamentary elections on 9 June. But it has been particularly marked in Cyprus, where it has been exacerbated by an increase in the number of Syrian refugees arriving by boat from nearby Lebanon.

“Racialised violence is on the rise in Cyprus – and the rest of Europe – as racist discourse from politicians across the political spectrum surges,” Emmanuel Achiri, policy and advocacy officer for the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), told The New Humanitarian.

With a population of around 1.2 million, Cyprus regularly receives the most asylum applications per capita of any of the EU’s 27 member states. The annual number of requests, however, is relatively low compared to other countries, at around 21,600 in 2022 and 11,600 in 2023.

In the first four months of this year, nearly 4,440 people submitted asylum applications. In past years, most asylum seekers have arrived by plane or ferry to the north of Cyprus – occupied by Türkiye since 1974 – and then crossed the buffer zone to the south. But this year there has been a rise in the number of Syrian refugees reaching the island by boat from Lebanon, which is just over 260 kilometres away by sea.

Behind the increase in boat crossings is intensified anti-Syrian xenophobia, violence, and deportations in Lebanon. With a population of around 5.3 million, Lebanon itself hosts an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees – the largest refugee population per capita in the world.

Regardless of the causes, political leaders in Cyprus have used the increase in Syrians arriving by boat to drum up a sense of crisis and threat, and used this to justify implementing migration policies that violate human rights, according to Achiri.

In an effort to deter Syrian arrivals, Cyprus on 14 April suspended the examination of Syrians’ asylum applications – following a previous pause between 2021 and 2023 that has created a serious backlog in the system. Two days later, the Cypriot government said it had sent two police boats to patrol international waters between Cyprus and Lebanon to prevent boats carrying refugees from reaching the island. The following day, it said it had prevented five boats carrying hundreds of refugees from leaving Lebanese waters. Human rights groups accused Cypriot authorities of pushing refugees back to Lebanon – a practice that violates international law, although Cyprus later claimed its actions didn’t amount to pushbacks.

On 2 May, the EU unveiled a one-billion-euro package of economic and security support for Lebanon, largely seen as part of the EU’s effort to try to curb migration by partnering with third countries.

Cyprus is also one of several EU countries pushing to designate some areas of Syria as ‘safe zones’ so it can carry out deportations to the country. Human rights groups have consistently warned for years that no part of Syria is safe for refugees to return to.