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| - Cyprus said Thursday it would seek to restrict the number of international students entering the EU member in a raft of sweeping changes to deter a spike in asylum requests. Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said many non-EU nationals who came to the island to study ended up seeking asylum while sham marriages were also used to secure residence. Cyprus, located 160 kilometres (100 miles) from the Syrian coast, has not seen the massive inflow of migrants experienced by Turkey and Greece. But the small Mediterranean island, with a population of one million people, says it now has Europe's highest per capita rate of asylum applications. Nouris said asylum applicants comprise 3.8 per cent of the island's population after a jump in migrant arrivals, reaching 34,000 between 2014 and the first three months of 2020. "This is equivalent to the size of Paphos," a resort town on the southern coast, he said. "If this were Germany, it would amount to 1.12 million people. "Other frontline countries -- Spain, Italy, Greece and Malta -- they have under one percent," said Nouris. According to Nouris 3,014 foreign students applied for asylum in 2019, while 2,000 sham marriages took place. He said the government was introducing tougher legislation for non-EU students -- by stipulating tighter financial criteria and requiring a recognised English language certification. Nouris said students would also need to declare that their lives were not in danger if they returned home, and they would only be able to do seek work related to their studies. According to Education Ministry data for 2018-19 there were 51,086 students in higher education. Of these 17,959 (35 per cent) were EU citizens and 9,255 (18 per cent) were third-country nationals mainly from Asia and Africa. Nicosia is also preparing to speed up the asylum process -- there are 19,000 pending applications -- to weed out those it says are abusing the system. It also plans to fast-track deportations by expediting the appeals process. Cyprus will also revoke the power of town halls to conduct civil weddings if they are found to have sanctioned illegal sham marriages used as way to stay in Cyprus. A purpose-built reception centre will also be constructed for those seeking international protection. The EU says that in spring 2019, Cyprus was receiving three times as many asylum applications per month, adjusted for population, as Greece. Nouris said Nicosia wanted to send a "clear message" to Brussels that Cyprus has reached its limits and would not tolerate abuse of a system intended for genuine asylum seekers. Cyprus also wants to see a more effective repatriation process and equal "burden sharing" among member states. cc/fz
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