The European Commission’s newly-released 2025 implementation report on the Green Line Regulation paints a much busier picture of movement across the island’s internal frontier. According to police statistics quoted in the document, more than 3.7 million individual crossings were recorded last year – a 12 per cent jump on 2024. The increase was broad-based. Crossings by Greek Cypriots rose to 1.45 million, while Turkish-Cypriot crossings climbed to 1.98 million. Perhaps most striking for multinationals and relocation managers was the 16 per cent surge in movements by “non-Cypriot EU citizens and third-country nationals”, which reached just over two million journeys. Border-control capacity is struggling to keep pace. The Commission highlights persistent queues at the Ayios Dhometios crossing despite extra staffing and the completion, in January, of EU-funded works to add lanes. Businesses shipping goods or shuttling employees between the two sides continue to face unpredictable dwell times. On the irregular migration front, reported unlawful south-bound crossings fell for a third consecutive year to 2,433 – down from a 2022 peak of 16,600. Cyprus credits tighter policing in the north and stepped-up deportations (5,230 refusals of entry and 1,754 removals) for the progress. While the numbers remain small in an EU context, the Green Line remains the Republic’s most porous border for asylum seekers, meaning compliance teams must still factor in possible policy tightening. For corporates, the headline is that intra-island mobility is returning to pre-pandemic levels, driven in part by cost-of-living arbitrage between the two economies. Cross-border commuting for work, shopping or leisure is likely to keep growing, so HR teams with staff on both sides should review travel policies, insurance cover and emergency protocols accordingly.
Source: Cyprus Mail
