Clashes break out, fires lit at overcrowded Cyprus migrant centre

Clashes appear to have broken out between two groups in the reception centre, according to police.

Clashes have broken out and fires have been lit at an overcrowded reception centre for migrants in Cyprus, according to police and witnesses.

Thick plumes of smoke rose on Friday over the Pournaras reception facility, about 22km (14 miles) west of the capital, Nicosia.

Witnesses told Reuters news agency that people from the camp had fled, running along a road with their belongings. Police said individuals left the camp, which is not a closed facility, when the fires broke out.

Police said clashes appeared to have broken out between two groups in the centre. The fires were extinguished by the fire brigade but sporadic clashes continued until early afternoon, police said.

“A number of tents were burnt … the situation has now calmed down,” a police spokesman said.

Pournaras has been housing well over its 1,000-person capacity as Cyprus struggles to cope with an influx of asylum seekers from Syria and African countries.

Many travel to the southern part of the island, controlled by the internationally recognised government of ethnically split Cyprus, through a buffer zone that separates it from the Turkish Cypriot-controlled area.

Authorities in Nicosia last week said this year alone, 17,000 people had entered their jurisdiction through irregular channels. There were 12,285 in the whole of 2021.