Cyprus says 100,000 more foreign nationals in Lebanon

Cyprus Interior Minister Andreas Christou said Thursday that there are some 100,000 more foreign nationals in Lebanon who have not yet decided if they wish to be evacuated from the war-torn country.

He told Cyprus Radio that “we can accommodate five to eight thousand evacuees a day” and that the financial cost of undertaking this effort “is not unbearable for the Cyprus government.”

“We are alone in this matter and we cannot put a price to the cost of saving lives, evacuating thousands of children, hospitalising some of the wounded or feeding the hungry,” Christou said.

Foreign Ministry operations coordinator Omiros Mavrommatis said that the number of arrivals to Cyprus has dropped to “a more bearable 2,000 evacuees”, adding that the total number passing through Cyprus is now closer to 43,000.

He said that most nationals are only staying for a short term, with the only trouble created when Canada could not evacuate 5,000 of its nationals quickly.

“There are only 1200 Canadians on the island right now,” Mavrommatis added.

Apart from the government services of police, ports officials, hospital workers and civil defence, he praised the work of the “thousands of volunteers who are helping by providing sandwiches, baby milk, nappies and emergency supplies” while a number of collection points have started to fill up with food and medical aid waiting to be shipped to Lebanon.

Eftychia Rad, a Lebanese married and living in Cyprus for 15 years who is volunteering every day at the ports, said she couldn’t thank the people of Cyprus enough, seeing the generous aid and help they provide.

“I lost my mother and 35 relatives in the previous war and there are places in Lebanon I only started to discover now, as a tourist. That is all destroyed now,” she added.

Dinos Hadjinicholas, an MP for the communist Akel party who is part of a European Left delegation in Lebanon, said they met with many officials, including deputies from Hezbollah and Hamas.

“They told us that if the war continues, they will continue to fight to the end,” he said.