Cyprus had sent 8,511 migrants home by early November 2024 and 9,193 last year through the voluntary return programme, Deputy Migration Minister Nicolas Ioannides said on Friday, pointing out that returns were an important instrument for addressing illegal migration.
Addressing the third meeting of the monitoring committees of the EU Home Affairs Funds for 2021-2027, Ioannides said Cyprus continues to receive high migration pressure as a front-line member state and the EU has significantly contributed to setting up the necessary infrastructure and services.
Ioannides referred to reception centres, including Pournara, where an EU-funded project worth €5 million is being implemented from 2023 to 2025 to provide additional services to the migrants staying there.
Referring to the returns programme, he said Cyprus is considered to be a good-practices model on an EU level and that a return roadmap workshop organised in early 2024 in Cyprus agreed on a common model which will be forwarded to all EU members.
Speaking at the meeting, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said Cyprus had spent over €120 million on 162 projects co-funded by the EU from 2014 till 2020.
For the period 2021-2027, the European Commission has so far approved €188 million for Cyprus, which spend an additional €41 million from the state budget on projects for migrants.
The European Commission further approved €82 million for projects for the management of migration.
In total so far, for the period 2021-2027, “an amount of €311 million have been approved for the Republic of Cyprus,” Ioannou said, adding that 66 projects are already underway.
