In January the Cypriot Interior Ministry issued a decree banning Syrian migrants from Chloraka village near Paphos, Philenews reported. Currently, about 1300 Syrians live in Chloraka, while the original inhabitants, Greek Cypriots, account for about 4000 in the village.

The objective of the Interior Ministry decree, as the newspaper notes, is to preserve the demographic balance in Chloraka and prevent it from turning into a Syrian ghetto. Since the high concentration of refugees created in the village, the criminal situation there has deteriorated noticeably, with an increase in theft and drug use. The mass settlement of migrants in the same location caused the Greek Cypriots in Chloraka to request the police to constantly patrol the streets, and during the last year the police had to be repeatedly called to the village.

Recall that a total of about 28,000 people have migrated to Cyprus from Syria, mostly young able-bodied men who claim to have left their homeland, where the civil war is ongoing, because they fear for their lives. In Cyprus, they are granted temporary humanitarian status – it does not entitle them to citizenship and family reunification and means that immediately after the situation in their home country returns to normal, they will have to return there.