The number of illegal immigrants and refugees who arrived in Cyprus in the first nine months of the year recorded an increase of 137%, compared to last year.
According to the International Organisation for Migration, from the 1st of January until the 8th of October 818 people arrived to Cyprus, compared to the corresponding period in 2016 when their number was 345.
The same data shows that 140,538 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2017 through 8 October, with over 75% arriving in Italy and the remainder divided between Greece, Cyprus and Spain. This compares with 318,207 arrivals across the region through the same period last year. The number of deaths reach 2,754 compared to 3,686 last year.
In the first nine months of the year 107,028 people arrived to Italy (144,445 last year), in Greece it was 20,364 (167,972), Cyprus 818 ( 345 last year) and Spain 12,328 (5,445 last year).
As an englishman with a second home in cyprus I can only point to my govts total lack of controls of immigrants, most of whom do not integrate, dont work and ignore our laws. While sympathizing with people escaping areas of conflict if cyprus allows this sort of increase year on year the tourists will not come and the cypriot people and their wonderful attitude and way of life will be spoiled forever.