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 statistics below have been provided by the Asylum Service.
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: figures for 2025 (1)
| Applicants in 2025 (2) | Pending at
end of 2025 |
Total people affected by decisions in 2025 (3) | Total in merit decisions (4) | Total rejection (5) | In merit rejection (6) | Refugee status | Subsidiary protection | |||
| Total | 4,600 | 15,777 | 9,827 | 4,481 | 9,150 | 3,804 | 470 | 207 | ||
|
Breakdown by countries of origin of the total numbers
|
||||||||||
| Syria | 1,166 | 11,393 | 3,695 | 691 | 3,556 | 598 | 53 | 40 | ||
| Nigeria | 428 | 176 | 565 | 270 | 546 | 254 | 11 | 5 | ||
| DR Congo | 325 | 670 | 1,587 | 1,212 | 1,560 | 1,198 | 13 | 1 | ||
| Somalia | 308 | 440 | 352 | 244 | 209 | 155 | 29 | 60 | ||
| Cameroon | 282 | 225 | 472 | 253 | 448 | 235 | 8 | 10 | ||
| Afghanistan | 275 | 968 | 593 | 192 | 181 | 133 | 55 | 4 | ||
| Iran | 271 | 538 | 357 | 279 | 318 | 248 | 29 | 2 | ||
| Sudan | 239 | 365 | 134 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 8 | 10 | ||
| Iraq | 124 | 143 | 247 | 188 | 146 | 102 | 73 | 13 | ||
| India | 121 | 21 | 145 | 65 | 145 | 65 | 0 | 0 | ||
Source: Asylum Service.
Note 1: All statistics concern people, including children and dependents.
Note 2: “Applicants in year” refers to the total number of applicants, and not only to first-time applicants.
Note 3: Statistics on decisions cover the decisions taken throughout the year, regardless of whether they concern applications lodged that year or in previous years. It does not include decisions of withdrawal of status or exclusion.
Note 4: Includes decisions granting refugee status, subsidiary protection and rejections.
Note 5: includes all rejection decisions, including inadmissibility, withdrawals and closed files (include Dublin closures as well as administrative closures eg death).
Note 6: These only include negative decisions on the merit of the application. It does not cover inadmissibility decisions.
Applications and granting of protection status at first instance: rates for 2025
| Overall rejection rate (2) | In merit rejection rate (1) (3) | Overall protection rate (2) | In merit protection rate (1) (3) | Refugee rate (1) | Subsidiary
protection rate (1) |
|
| Total | 93.11% | 84.90% | 6.89% | 15.11% | 10.49% | 4.62% |
|
Breakdown by countries of origin of the total numbers
|
||||||
| Syria | 36.19% | 13.35 % | 0.95% | 2,08 % | 1,18 % | 0,89 % |
| Nigeria | 5.56% | 5.67 % | 0.16% | 0,36 % | 0,25 % | 0,11 % |
| DR Congo | 15.87% | 26.74 % | 0.14% | 0,31 % | 0,29 % | 0,02 % |
| Somalia | 2.13% | 3.46 % | 0.91% | 1,99 % | 0,65 % | 1,34 % |
| Cameroon | 4.56% | 5.24 % | 0.18% | 0,40 % | 0,18 % | 0,22 % |
| Afghanistan | 1.84% | 2.97 % | 0.60% | 1,32 % | 1,23 % | 0,09 % |
| Iran | 3.24% | 5.53 % | 0.32% | 0,69 % | 0,65 % | 0,04 % |
| Sudan | 0.11% | 0.02 % | 0% | 0 % | 0 % | 0 % |
| Iraq | 1.49% | 2.28 % | 0.88% | 1,92 % | 1,63 % | 0,29 % |
| India | 1.48% | 1.45 % | 0% | 0 % | 0 % | 0 % |
Source of the percentages: Cyprus Refugee Council.
Note 1: These rates are calculated based on in merit decisions only, excluding non in merit rejections.
Note 2: These rates are calculated based on total decisions.
Note 3: See Admissibility procedure.
Gender/age breakdown of the total number of applicants: 2025
| Adults | Children | ||
| Accompanied | Unaccompanied | ||
| Number | 2,161 | 466 | 208 |
| Percentage | 76% | 17% | 7% |
| Men | Women | |
| Number | 2,012 | 823 |
| Percentage | 71% | 29% |
Source: Cyprus Asylum Service, percentages by ECRE
Note 1: The gender breakdown concerns only new applicants and corresponds to a total of 2,835 persons. It does not include applicants of subsequent applications.
Note 2: The gender breakdown (Men/Women) applies to all applicants, not only adults.
First instance and appeal decision rates: 2025
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. At first instance a decision is counted for each applicant, including children and dependants, whereas at the appeal stage a decision issued by the court may affect multiple asylum applicants.
| Number | First instance | Appeal |
| Number | ||
| Total number of decisions[1] | 9,827 | 3,708 |
| Positive decisions | 60 | |
|
470 | 19 |
|
207 | 6 |
|
35 | |
| Negative decisions | 4,920 | 1,541 |
| Explicit Withdrawal/ Implicit Withdrawal | 3,712 | 2,107 |
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 either return the decision to the Asylum Service to be reviewed and a new decision will be issued or the IPAC may grant refugee status or subsidiary protection directly.[3]
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. In December 2024, the number of pending appeals in both the regular and accelerated procedure were 6,583 corresponding to 6,986 persons. In December 2025, the number of pending appeals in both the regular and accelerated procedure were 6,665 corresponding to 7,370 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. In 2024, 52 cases were examined, which corresponded to 93 persons, of which 15 were granted refugee status; 5 granted subsidiary protection; 19 rejections; 4 explicit withdrawals; 7 implicit withdrawals; 1 unequivocal renunciation of subsidiary protection, and 1 was cessation of subsidiary protection. At the end of 2024, 37 cases remained pending and at the end of 2025, 30 cases. [4]
[1] Does not include decisions of withdrawal of status or exclusion.
[2] Order to Review/Dismissal of 1st Instance Decision, see section below on Appeal.
[3] Article 11 IPAC Law.
[4] Information provided by the Cyprus Asylum Service.