Cyprus's capacity to absorb floods of evacuees fleeing Lebanon is being tested by modest infrastructure and limited human resources and the situation is reaching saturation point, officials warn.
While the island is well-placed to handle 2.5 million tourists staggered out over the year, an influx of more than 12,000 evacuees in the space of four days with thousands more set to come is placing tremendous pressure on the island, whose total resident population is less than one million.
Over-worked reception workers have not slept in days, harbours are working around the clock with extra workers and airports are running at four times their normal capacity.
Most evacuees are Europeans or Americans, but Cyprus's real worry is what will happen when individuals from third countries start appearing. That means further immigration scrutiny, officials say.
"At the moment it is costing a few hundred thousand pounds (dollars) a day. We can't sustain this on a long-term basis, but for the time being it is something we are coping with," Finance Minister Michael Sarris told Reuters. "It will not break the bank. If it's a week, we can absorb it," he said.