€1,500 and a one-way ticket to Damascus
This is how Cyprus is deporting Syrians from the country, under the guise of voluntary returns, with the EU's financial support, and help from Frontex' specialists
With @hopeamelie.bsky.social, for @thenewarab.bsky.social:
https://www.newarab.com/investigations/eu-deports-syrians-under-guise-voluntary-returns
🧵
This is how Cyprus is deporting Syrians from the country, under the guise of voluntary returns, with the EU's financial support, and help from Frontex' specialists
With @hopeamelie.bsky.social, for @thenewarab.bsky.social:
https://www.newarab.com/investigations/eu-deports-syrians-under-guise-voluntary-returns
🧵
Comments
For this story, @hopeamelie.bsky.social spoke in March 2024 to Fares (not his real name), a Syrian refugee in Cyprus who had been ordered to leave for Lebanon on a dubious smuggling charge, and had been held in a police cell for 2 months as a consequence.
Fares has since been released.
The experts we spoke with told us that, more than detention, it was Cyprus' hostile policies against Syrians that were leading to more of them to choose to Syria.
At least, when it came to leaving, Cyprus was eager to hand them envelopes of cash before departure.
Needless to say, the warnings went unheard.
The EU Commission, for its part, provides 90% of the budget of the program.
Between May 2022 & Sept 2024, the EU spent almost €9.7 million on the voluntary deportation of 12,600 people - 1.3% of the population in Cyprus.