NICOSIA – Relative to its population, Cyprus shipped out more migrants – some 3,500 – than any other European Union country in the first half of 2022 although the island isn’t a favored destination.

Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said there were, at the same time, about 13,000 asylum seekers who came on to the side of the island under the Greek-Cypriot government that’s a member of the European Union, not including the Turkish-Cypriot occupied northern third.

Meeting with reporters he said the government is still trying to deal with the numbers coming in and that he’d met with officials from Germany and France about taking some, but no details were given, The Cyprus Mail reported.

tackling the issue of increased flow of irregular immigrants, which have made the island one of the top EU destinations by population size.

He also said that Cyprus sent a list of 2,000 people for Pakistan to take back and another 700 for Vietnam, refugees and migrants coming from far and wide to reach an EU country.

“We are in the process of signing a (readmission) agreement with a Sub-Saharan country from which we have identified a problem concerning the influx of migrants,” he said without naming it.

He said that the EU’s border patrol FRONTEX is paying for the expenses of sending people back to their homelands again.