Asylum seekers return to reception center in Cyprus after clashes

Hundreds of asylum seekers returned to an overcrowded reception center in Cyprus after fleeing from violent clashes and fires, which destroyed 24 tents on Friday, the Police said on Saturday, reported Xinhua.

Police spokesman Christos Andreou said that arrest warrants have been issued against five persons who have been identified as being among the instigators of the clashes.

"The instigators have fled and they are sought by police. The situation is now calmed down and most asylum seekers returned to the facility overnight on Friday and on Saturday morning," Christou said.

He added that police have increased their presence at a police station next to the reception center and more reinforcements will be sent there after a special police force will be set up in a few months.

Chief of Police Stelios Papatheodorou said on Friday a large force of regular and anti-riot police officers was trying to contain the situation at the overcrowded Pournara reception center, some 20 km west of the capital Nicosia.

Videos beamed by television stations showed more than 20 people attacking each other with iron rods and sticks and throwing rocks, while thick smoke billowed from burning tents.

Cyprus has repeatedly claimed that it hosts the largest concentration of asylum seekers in relation to its population of less than one million.

Authorities said months ago that the ratio of asylum seekers to the local population was 4 percent, as all other European Union countries each hosted less than 1 percent if migrants in relation to their population.

They said that the influx of irregular migrants picked up this year, with 17,000 asylum seekers arriving in the eastern Mediterranean island up last week, double the number of irregular migrants in the same period of last year.