After a demonstration against refugees and migrants, there were serious riots in the Cypriot port of Limassol on Friday evening. Around 350 hooded people attacked migrant shops and the people themselves, threw incendiary devices and stones and set garbage cans on fire, the Cyprus Times newspaper reported.
The police used tear gas, five people were injured, there were 13 arrests. According to media reports, the masked people are right-wing extremists. Right-wing extremists had already attacked migrants in the small town of Chloraka last weekend.
“Migrants out of Cyprus”
Television pictures showed passers-by running to safety while the masked people chanted “Migrants out of Cyprus” and rioted. On Friday evening, President Nikos Christodoulidis spoke of “shameful pictures”, as reported by the broadcaster RIK. On Saturday morning, a crisis meeting took place in the presidential building with the responsible ministers, the police, civil defense and the fire brigade.
According to the Cypriot Interior Ministry, refugees and migrants now make up six percent of the population. Measured by population, the small island republic also has by far the highest number of asylum applications per year in the EU. The refugee camps are overcrowded, and ghettos have formed in many places where people live in poverty. These conditions serve as a reason for the riots for the ultra-right.
Report from the broadcaster RIK Report from the broadcaster Sigma Report from the newspaper “Cyprus Times”
