Cyprus wants EU support for migrant crackdown as flows rise

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
Associated Press

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus says it it will seek European Union approval to stop processing asylum claims from migrants illegally entering the east Mediterranean island nation. Government spokesman Marios Pelekanos said Wednesday that a surge of new migrant arrivals is fueling serious crime, taxing state coffers and altering the country’s demographics. Pelekanos said authorities would also press the EU to relocate a number of asylum seekers living in Cyprus to other bloc member countries and strike agreements with third countries to take back their citizens who have had their asylum applications rejected. Cyprus Refugee Council head Corina Droushiotou said it’s unlikely that the EU would permit authorities not to process new asylum claims or that relocation procedures would be enacted soon.