Cyprus Police announced on Wednesday the return to their country of 23 third country nationals who were illegally in Cyprus on Tuesday night, as part of a coordinated joint forced return operation organised by FRONTEX. As stated, a total of 67 third country nationals were repatriated in the framework of the operation, which involved, in addition to Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Italy, the Czech Republic, France, Malta, Spain and Sweden. It is also noted that Cyprus was chosen for the first time as the hub of the FRONTEX operation, with the other countries’ missions arriving in Cyprus, where they boarded the main aircraft of the operation and departed for the final destination of the mission. It is added that the mission was accompanied by 34 members of the Police, as well as 13 FRONTEX Return Escort and Support Officers. Police also said that in a second repatriation operation, also conducted on Tuesday, eight other nationals of the same third country who were illegally in Cyprus returned to their country. It added that 1,680 third country nationals have been repatriated through voluntary and forced return procedures since the beginning of the year.
Source: Cyprus News Agency