Tensions have been rising for a number of years as some locals imagine too many refugees and migrants have settled within the space.
Cyprus police have arrested 21 individuals after violent clashes involving refugees and residents of a group within the west of the island which has a big inhabitants of asylum seekers.
On Tuesday, police mentioned about 250 Syrians and Greek Cypriots within the village of Chloraka fell into violence on Monday night time as smaller numbers of protesters from each teams started setting hearth to garbage bins and torching a constructing’s fence.
Anti-riot squad officers managed to separate the 2 teams, whereas one officer suffered second-degree burns to his hand from a Molotov cocktail.
Police spokesman Christos Andreou informed state broadcaster CyBC on Tuesday that the clashes started when Greek Cypriots tried to assault the migrants and refugees.
He mentioned 9 Greek Cypriots and a dozen migrants and refugees had been detained.
Cyprus has seen a spike within the arrival of irregular migrants and folks in search of asylum lately, although the speed of improve has tapered off this yr.
About 20 p.c of the migrant and refugee group in Chlorakas comes from Syria.
Tensions have been operating excessive for a number of years over some locals’ perception {that a} disproportionate variety of asylum seekers have settled within the space.
However Monday night time’s clashes adopted violence a day earlier when two migrants and a Greek Cypriot man had been arrested after lots of of Chloraka residents protested towards what they referred to as the “ghettoisation” of their village.
Andreou mentioned the protest turned violent when smaller teams of demonstrators rampaged by means of the village, allegedly attacking one migrant, damaging a migrant-owned restaurant and overturning a automobile.
However what triggered Sunday’s demonstration was a police sweep by means of an deserted condo advanced in Chloraka to evict dozens of refugees allegedly dwelling there illegally.
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides condemned the incident and informed reporters that violence solves nothing and solely incites extra violence.
Christodoulides added that he had instructed the police chief and the justice minister to carry talks with Chloraka municipal authorities and the Syrian refugees to “guarantee public order” as a result of “the individuals’s sense of safety is non-negotiable”.
However attempting to assuage the locals’ issues, the president mentioned curbing the variety of migrants and refugees that arrive within the nation stays a high precedence for his authorities.
