Residents of Atienou, whose community is entirely within the buffer zone of Cyprus, divided into two parts of the island, will never agree to the government's plans to build a concertina wire fence to stop illegal migration. The mayor of the city stated this, in addition, he spoke negatively about the work of the police in the Nicosia region. He stated that the inhabitants of Atienu are against illegal migrants, but do not want to be imprisoned themselves, surrounded by razor wire.
In his opinion, illegal migration can be stopped in other ways, such as improving the work of the police, improving cooperation with citizens, installing surveillance cameras and other security measures. But building a razor wire fence around the city is a bad idea. Mayor Atienu believes that the concertina wire fence will affect local agriculture and other commercial activities in the region.
Last year, the Cypriot government began building a razor wire fence around the green line separating Cyprus as an unprecedented 21,000 new asylum applications were registered in 2022. Barbed wire has already been installed between some villages along the Nicosia buffer zone.