Averof - Nouris: Immigration is the second national problem

The President of the Democratic Alarm and candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, Mr. Averof Neophytou, met today with the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Nikos Nouris, accompanied by his associates. Immigration was at the center of the meeting, while Mr. Neophytou informed Mr. Nouris about the contacts he had in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After the meeting, the President of DISY stated the following:

"I met today with my friend the Minister of the Interior, Nikos Nouris, where we discussed the great immigration issue but I also had the opportunity and this was the main topic of our discussion today to inform him about my visit and my contacts with the government of the Congo. Immigration is a joint finding of ours, together with the government, that unfortunately it is developing as our second national problem with great risks. Cyprus has exceeded the limits it can accept, irregular immigrants. Once again I want to state on behalf of the Democratic Alarm our support for the actions of the government and the Minister of the Interior on this great national issue.

Immigrant has the following risks.

First, an unbearable financial burden. Second, it unfortunately increases crime. Thirdly, national security issues are raised, but also fourthly, the danger of demographic change is now visible. We have never been racists and I want to state this: The effort of the government with the support of the Democratic Alarm to support the Cypriot society, the Cypriot state is not racism.

Regarding our trip to the Congo, I informed the Minister of the Interior about our initiative and contacts. I am aware of the efforts of the Minister of the Interior himself and of our government to the government of the Congo and other countries. Our effort was reinforcing, I don't want to create either high expectations or a nihilistic approach. I humbly consider that with the continuation of efforts on the part of the government we have the possibility to be perhaps the second European country to achieve a bilateral agreement with the Congo. Mission difficult, we must continue the efforts, I also support the efforts of the government and the Minister of the Interior and just for information, the only country in Europe that has bilateral repatriation agreements is Belgium because of the special relations because for many years, the People's Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire, was a colony of Belgium."

For his part, Mr. Nouris emphasized the following:

"I had the opportunity to meet again with the President of the Democratic Alert, precisely to be informed about the contacts he made in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on his recent trip. I want to clarify that the government's efforts in the direction of immigration management are continuous and uninterrupted. Every initiative that is supportive in the direction of our own efforts is welcome and this is how we deal with this effort and initiative of the President of the Democratic Alarm, whom I thank warmly for the information but much more for the initiatives he undertook. I want to make it clear that for many months we have been saying that there is clearly an instrumentalization by Turkey of Africans, mainly immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Continuous flows have been recorded since last September 2021 on a systematic and daily basis, the vast majority of which are nationals of countries originating from sub-Saharan Africa, among them and the Congo, which today, within a very short period of time, are the first nationality in arrivals.

Today there are approximately 4.500 Congolese living in the Republic of Cyprus whose applications have either been rejected or are in the process of being rejected. Despite this, an agreement between the Republic of Cyprus and the Democratic Republic of the Congo does not exist. Agreement and the two returns we managed to make to the Congo, were made after the two Ministers of the Interior of Cyprus and Belgium had previously agreed and in two flights that Belgium had repatriated Congolese to the Congo we were able to add 15 and 16 nationals on the two specific occasions to Congolese who had been rejected and even came from the central prisons.

Therefore it is imperative in the context of this huge effort that we are making for returns that agreements be concluded. So for months we have been discussing with this country in an attempt to conclude such an agreement and in this direction any support and help, and in this case from the friendly President of the Democratic Alarm, was and is welcome. Of course, similar initiatives would be welcome if others would like to undertake them always in consultation with the government. You know and we have announced that similar efforts are being made in the direction of Pakistan and Vietnam, the specific initiatives are more advanced because the purpose and goal is on the one hand, as we have stated, to limit arrivals but at the same time to maximize returns in order to to be able to reduce the number which today is excessively large for the data of the Republic of Cyprus and of course to be able to manage those who are really in need in the best possible way. The aim and purpose is not to expel people from our country. The aim and purpose is to give real support to those who really need it and those who are not legalized to remain in the Republic to be returned to these countries. Finally, I want to express here once again my thanks to the European Union itself, which is helping us in this effort through the memoranda we have already signed and through the Frontex Agency, which undertakes all return air costs in the event that such refunds are made.

The returns office of the Ministry of the Interior created up to this moment is evaluated with very good performance since we have managed in the first 7 months of 2022 to achieve 4000 returns to different countries which brings our country to the first place among returns in proportion to population among EU member countries. I have to say that I am personally not satisfied with this number of returns because, quite simply, the arrivals are excessively large and create an inequality. Therefore the effort continues, the initiative taken and the actions taken on behalf of the President of the Democratic Alarm clearly add to our own effort and we will try to use them to the maximum extent possible to achieve the conclusion of an agreement that will enable us to maximize returns.

Of course we should also send a message because we all need to know that today Cyprus and due to its geographical position and due to the fact that it does not belong to the Schengen zone and due to the fact that it is an island surrounded by the sea is essentially a trap for many of those who arrive in our country who do not know many times when they arrive and when they realize that they cannot move to central Europe which was their dream then it is their problem and our problem. That is why we want through these initiatives to send a message to the countries from which many immigrants come that Cyprus is not an immigrant paradise and it is for this reason that two weeks ago I had the opportunity to inform the whole of the ambassadors of the Republic of Cyprus who are in various such countries and an initiative has already been taken in cooperation with both Ministries to carry out information campaigns in these countries precisely so that those who choose our country for their next station know what the real data.