Israel is experiencing the fourth day of war, with Cyprus ready to host foreign nationals on its territory and act as a transit station for citizens evacuating war zones.
In fact, as announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "in light of the security situation that arose after the extensive terrorist activity in the country, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Konstantinos Kopos, today convened the Ministerial Crisis Management Team, which consists of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister Defense, the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Justice and Public Order".
According to the announcement, "the Ministerial Group decided to activate the Special National Plan "ESTIA" for the reception and repatriation of foreign citizens from an area in crisis, through the territory of the Republic of Cyprus".
In this context, the Republic of Cyprus intends to offer facilities for the repatriation of foreign nationals from Israel, through Cyprus.
What does the "ESTIA" Plan include
The Special National Plan "ESTIA" is the National Action Plan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is activated in the event of an emergency or crisis, to allow the safe evacuation of citizens from a nearby crisis area (from the wider Middle East region), through Cyprus. It can also be applied in cases of natural disasters in the region, which may also lead to the evacuation of EU and third country citizens through our country.
What does Civil Defense do?
The Ministry of the Interior participates in the implementation of the Plan, through the Civil Defense, which has administrative responsibility, with its duties including the accommodation, feeding and transportation of foreign nationals arriving in Cyprus, as indicated to SigmaLive, the Representative Press of the Civil Defense, Panagiotis Liasidis.
A competent source from the Ministry of the Interior told SigmaLive that his responsibilities mainly include the provision of material services on the ground, either to citizens who will spend the night in our country, or to citizens who will stay on the territory of the Republic of Cyprus for a few hours.
According to Mr. Liasidis, upon the arrival of foreign nationals in Cyprus, they are given food and drink at the airport and then, if they are going to spend the night in our country, they are taken to special accommodation areas by buses. If it is a short stay, then they are transferred to a specially designed area within the airport.
As the source from the Ministry of the Interior added, the KENs of Larnaca and Limassol are mainly used as accommodation facilities, or if there is a request from the embassy of any country for the accommodation of its nationals in a hotel, then the Ministry undertakes to find suitable accommodation and satisfy the request.
As far as the KENs of Larnaca and Limassol are concerned, the responsibility of the Civil Defense is to provide food, meals, beds, sheets, etc. throughout the stay of foreign nationals in these areas.
How does KSED help?
As far as the Search and Rescue Coordination Center in Larnaca is concerned, as its Commander, Andreas Charalambidis, told SigmaLive, this belongs to the "ZENON" Coordination Center at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for coordinating the "ESTIA" Project in cooperation with government agencies and foreign embassies.
Also, specially configured facilities are available next to the Coordination Center, for the reception of foreign nationals, before their transfer to the Larnaca KEN.
According to information, foreign citizens arrive in Cyprus on air force flights of their countries and depart on commercial flights.
As Mr. Charalambidis mentioned, in the event that the Ben Gurion International Airport of Tel Aviv is closed, then the control (scanning) of the travel documents of those arriving in our country, (which is now normally carried out at the airport), will be carried out at its facilities KSED.
As indicated to us, after today's activation of the "ESTIA" plan, so far a flight with 85 Portuguese nationals has arrived in Cyprus, who, after applying the appropriate procedures, were transferred to the Larnaca Airport.