Immigrant alarm signal

"Protia" of Cyprus in hosting asylum seekers. The percentages are disproportionate to the other Member States. The President of the Republic warns Europe about the impossibility of receiving immigrants. Hundreds of Syrians entered through the sea area of ​​free Famagusta in just one week

WhatsApp Image 2021 05 25 at 10 Immigrants, IMMIGRATION, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

At the 27th Summit last week, the President of the Republic presented the issue of Immigration. Nikos Anastasiadis informed the Summit about the very difficult position in which Cyprus has found itself, due to the continuous flows of illegal immigrants from the occupied territories, with Turkey as a point of departure. This, he said, further worsens the resilience and hosting capacity of Cyprus, while stressing the need for full implementation of the EU-Turkey Joint Declaration on Immigration, as well as the 2014 Readmission Agreement.

The statements of the President of the Republic were made just twenty-four hours after the unprecedented flow of migratory flows to the shores of free Famagusta, when in just a few days hundreds of Syrians entered by boat, while others were located in the community of Avgoros after entering Strovilomina.

Emergency situation

In his statements on the increased migratory flows, the Minister of Interior stated that Cyprus is entering a state of emergency, while he sent a written statement to the European Commission, in which he emphasizes that there is no other possibility to receive additional informal migrants.

According to Nikos Nouris, recently there has been a wave of arrivals on a daily basis by sea from the southern coast of Syria and especially from the port of Tartu. A situation which, in combination with the overcrowding presented by the Reception Centers, has obliged him, as he stated, to send a written step to the European Commission, informing them that Cyprus is entering a state of emergency regarding immigration and without no other possibility of receiving additional immigrants. Through the demonstration, Cyprus requests from the European Commission "its immediate intervention in order to prevent illegal departures from the coasts of Syria and especially from the port of Tartu, in order to minimize the problem it faces". At the same time, Cyprus, according to the Minister of Interior, requested the "intervention of the European Union in a specific way, in order to control the southern coast of Syria, so that there are no additional departures of illegal immigrants from Syria, with special reference to its port." Tarts, from where we find that the outflows are continuous ".

According to Nikos Nouris, the constant, permanent and imperative request of the Republic of Cyprus to the European Union is the agreement on the return of third-country nationals from the European Union and with the obligation of the countries to accept their nationals. The issue was recently discussed in the Council of Interior Ministers, in the presence, for the first time, of Ministers from the African continent and specifically from sub-Saharan Africa, from which there is a large number of migrant arrivals.

"It is not the intention of the Government to make Cyprus a vast camp of immigrants", stressed the Minister of Interior, emphasizing on the one hand the assistance to refugees in real need and, on the other hand, the need to send a clear message from Cyprus that the possibilities are not inexhaustible and that the reception possibilities have already been exceeded.

Applications for political asylum in numbers

According to data provided by "Simerini", asylum seekers and already holders of refugee status or supplementary protection status, in total, amount to 4% of the proportion of the population in Cyprus. This percentage in the other countries of the European Union does not exceed 1% by population, while in Greece the percentage is 0,8%.

In terms of hospitality, the "Pournara First Reception Center" has a total capacity of one thousand people after the extensions made to it in 2020. However, today, due to the continuous and daily flow of new asylum seekers, it accommodates over one thousand eight hundred people. , with the Asylum Service and the Aliens and Immigration Service of the Police to make superhuman efforts to complete the procedures of the residents, in order to "relieve" the Center.

As of January 1, 2021, until today, the Asylum Service has issued 3.200 rejection decisions, while to date more than 3.000 new asylum applications have already been submitted. More specifically, asylum applications have increased rapidly in the last five years, at least, after reaching 2.253 in 2015, 2.936 in 2016, 4.582 in 2017, 7.761 in 2018 and almost doubled in 2019, reaching 13.648. In 2020, due to the measures to stop the pandemic, the applications reached 7.094.

In the first four months of 2021 alone, from January to April, 2.870 applications for political asylum were submitted by the ten main countries from which applications were registered. More specifically, 682 applications were registered from Syria, 320 from India, 247 from Nigeria, 237 from Congo, an equal number of applications from Cameroon, 191 from Nepal, 149 from Pakistan, 132 from Somalia, 131 from Sierra Leone, 95 from Guinea and 279 from other countries.

In a publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cyprus on 26 May, the Minister of the Interior renewed the Decree on Safe Citizenship, in which twenty-nine countries are designated as safe nationalities "based on the legal status, application of law within the democratic system and political persecution, since there are generally and permanently no acts of persecution under Article 3C of the Refugee Laws 2000 to 2020, nor torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or the conflict ”. These are, in particular, Egypt, Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Vietnam, Northern Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, The Gambia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Kosovo, Morocco, Montenegro, Mongolia, Mongolia, Moldova, Moldova, Moldova Pakistan, Senegal, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine (excluding Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk), Pakistan, Senegal, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Togo, Tunisia and Philippines.

Source: Simerini Newspaper (30/5/2021) / Marinos Pavlikkas