Author
Overview of statistical practice
The Asylum Service, a department of the Ministry of Interior, is the authority responsible for asylum-related statistical collection in Cyprus. The below statistics have been provided by the Asylum Service.
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: 2023
| Applicants in 2023 (2) | Pending at
end of year |
Total decisions in year (3) | Total in merit decisions (4) | Total rejection (6) | In merit rejection (4) (6) | Refugee status
|
Subsidiary protection | |
| Total | 10,662 | 26,599 | 18,321 | 9,435 | 11,376 | 7,104 | 749 | 2314 |
| Syria | 6.199 | 12.801 | 1 | 43 | 2040 | |||
| Nigeria | 1.019 | 1.231 | 2,816 | 43 | 2 | |||
| Afghanistan | 736 | 1.505 | 30 | 119 | 1 | |||
| DR Congo | 427 | 3.495 | 765 | 34 | 4 | |||
| Cameroon | 421 | 2.233 | 838 | 44 | 50 | |||
| Somalia | 337 | 1.113 | 127 | 111 | 156 | |||
| Pakistan | 332 | 133 | 519 | 1 | 0 | |||
| Bangladesh | 325 | 69 | 517 | 3 | 0 | |||
| Iraq | 304 | 407 | 66 | 39 | 21 | |||
| India | 280 | 62 | 398 | 0 | 0 |
Source: Asylum Service.
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: rates for 2023
| Overall rejection rate (2) (4) | Refugee rate (1) (4) | Subsidiary
protection rate (1) (4) |
|
| Syria | 0.04% | 2.06% | 97.8% |
| Nigeria | 98.4% | 1.5% | 0.06% |
| Afghanistan | 20% | 79.3% | 0.66% |
| DRC | 95.2% | 4.23% | 0.49% |
| Cameroon | 89.9% | 4.72% | 5.36% |
| Somalia | 32.2% | 28.17% | 39.59% |
| Pakistan | 99.8% | 0.19% | 0% |
| Bangladesh | 99.4% | 0.57% | 0% |
| Iraq | 52.38% | 30.95% | 16.6% |
| India | 100% | 0% | 0% |
Source: Cyprus Asylum Service. Percentages calculated by Cyprus Refugee Council.
Gender/age breakdown of the total number of applicants: 2023
Disaggregated data on the gender and age of asylum applicants in 2023 was not available at the time of publication.
First instance and appeal decision rates: 2023
It should be noted that, during the same year, the first instance and appeal authorities handle different caseloads. Thus, the decisions below do not concern the same applicants.
| First instance | Appeal | |||
| Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
| Total number of decisions | 18,321 | 9,880 | ||
| Positive decisions | ||||
|
472 | 14 | ||
|
1,859 | 5 | ||
|
– | 23 | ||
| Negative decisions | 7,104 | 2,422 | ||
| Explicit Withdrawal | 2,896 | 5,382 | ||
| Implicit Withdrawal | 2,033 | |||
Source: Asylum Service and IPAC
* The total number of decisions includes all decisions issued by the Asylum service and the IPAC, including positive decisions, rejections, implicit and explicit withdrawals and decisions on inadmissible applications.
Note: If the IPAC accepts the appeal, the decision of the Asylum Service will be cancelled. The IPAC has the jurisdiction to return the decision to the Asylum Service to be reviewed and a new decision issued or the IPAC may grant refugee status or subsidiary protection.[2]
International Protection Administrative Court (IPAC): At the end of 2020, there were 1,100 pending appeals before the IPAC. Throughout 2021, the number of pending appeals registered a sharp increase, reaching a total of 6,537 at the end of the year. In December 2022, the number of pending appeals in both the regular and accelerated procedure had reached 6,609, corresponding to 6,814 persons. In December 2023, the number of pending appeals in both the regular and accelerated procedure were 4,897 corresponding to 5,073 persons.
Refugee Reviewing Authority: Operations ceased in December 2020 and at the time approximately 400 cases were not concluded and were transferred back to the Asylum Service. In 2022 the Asylum Service set up a team to examine these cases. At the end of 2023, 281 decisions had been issued, of which 54 were granted refugee status; 23 subsidiary protection; 127 rejections; 28 explicit withdrawals and 49 implicit withdrawals; and 89 cases remain pending.[3]
[1] Order to Review, see section below sections on Appeals.
[2] Article 11 IPAC Law.
[3] Information provided by Asylum Service.