Cyprus hit out at Turkey on Friday for acts it said were behind the creation of a new migration route that had "disproportionally burdened" it with the EU's highest percentage of asylum-seekers.The Republic of Cyprus, a member of the European Union since 2004, has seen a surge in asylum-seekers in recent weeks and months.
Many enter by illegally crossing the UN-patrolled buffer zone that divides the island between the Greek-majority south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north.
Cyprus said it has had the highest proportion of asylum applications in the EU for four consecutive years, at four percent of its population compared with the bloc's average of close to one percent.
"In fact, Turkey's stance has led to the creation, rather than prevention, of a new migration route in the eastern Mediterranean, which disproportionally burdens Cyprus, and places enormous strain on the national asylum system." Nicosia would raise "the extent of the migration crisis faced by Cyprus" in Brussels to ensure it "receives the assistance required to effectively address it", the statement said.
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