Mediterranean countries on major migrant routes into Europe expect over 150,000 arrivals this year as food shortages caused by the invasion of Ukraine threaten a new migration wave from Africa and the Middle East.

“This year the frontline member states are expected, as we have discussed between us, to receive more than 150,000 migrants,” Cyprus Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said on Saturday after a meeting with fellow ministers of the so-called MED5 group in Venice.

Some 36,400 asylum seekers and migrants have already landed in Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Malta this year, after 123,318 arrivals in 2021, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Overall numbers, however, remain significantly below those of 2015, when over 1 million migrants reached the five countries to flee poverty and conflict across Africa and the Middle East.

A shortage of wheat and other grains could affect 1.4 billion people, United Nations crisis coordinator Amin Awad said on Friday, adding more negotiations were needed to unblock the ports in Ukraine to avoid famine and mass migration around the world.

Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies, while Russia is also a key fertilizer exporter and Ukraine a major supplier of corn and sunflower oil.

“If wheat remains blocked in the Black Sea ports, we must expect a greater (migrant) flow,” Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese told SkyTG24 on Friday. “We are concerned, as are all frontline countries.”

Source: https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/mediterranean-countries-expect-over-150000-migrants-2022

The post Europe: Mediterranean countries expect over 150,000 migrant arrivals this year first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Cyprus is launching a multilingual SMS campaign to head off more migrant arrivals by dispelling the mistaken belief it is a gateway to the rest of the EU, interior minister Nicos Nouris told the Cyprus Mail on Monday.

The message will be seen by all who enter the roaming area of Cyprus, he said.

“The intention is to let them know a number of issues of which they are not properly informed,” he told the Cyprus Mail. “The major problem is that they think they can go to any country in Europe from here.”

Nouris said arriving migrants are effectively “trapped” in Cyprus because the island is not part of the Schengen area – the 26 European nations that have abolished their borders and permit unrestricted travel between them.

“We interviewed a number of them and we realized that the traffickers are taking advantage of them. Most of the interviewees are not interested in staying in Cyprus. They want to go to Germany, Italy, Greece…They say they told us to come to Cyprus to get approval. So sending this message is good for them and good for the country.”

Indeed, many do not know what to expect, Rimon, a refugee from Bangladesh, told the paper. He is currently in the Pournoura reception camp in Kokkinotrimithia and has spoken to many other refugees from different countries.

“Nearly 100 percent who come to the north believe they are in Europe already,” he said, “and 95 percent who cross to the south believe they will find work and be able to go to other European countries.”

Cyprus, with a population of roughly 880,000, has “by a wide margin” the largest number of migrants relative to its population in the 27-member bloc, Nouris said.

3.8 percent of those living in Cyprus are asylum seekers, while that number is under one percent in other front-line EU states like Greece, Italy, Spain, and Malta.

It is estimated that just 25-30 percent of all migrants currently in Cyprus are refugees fleeing conflict.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cyprus-launch-sms-campaign-stem-migrant-arrivals-70986238

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