strong> cause of the immigration problem in Cyprus is called Turkey,said on Monday the Minister of the Interior Nikos Nouris, in the presentation of the Ministry's work during his term, adding that despite the European efforts to warn there was no response from the Turkish side.
Referring to the immigration sector. , Mr. Nouris said that in the last five years Cyprus has become the European member state with the highest number of asylum seekers, since during this period 63,303 applications were submitted, with the asylum seekers and persons who have already received protection status to make up 6% of the population of the Republic of Cyprus.
As Mr. Nouris mentioned, for the management of the problem, the Ministry proceeded with drastic corrective movements in political and infrastructure matters, such as the nullification of asylum applications from virtual marriages by changing the Legislation, the drastic limitation of virtual students, the conclusion of a readmission agreement with Lebanon, the acceleration of the primary examination of asylum applications, the increase of judges< /strong>of the Administrative Court of International Protection from 2 to 10 and the electronic interconnection of all co-competent services.
He also emphasized the upcoming modernization of the Refugee Law, the creation of a Return Office under the Minister, succeeding since the first year of operation the largest number of returns in the EU with 7,600 returns by 2022,the conclusion of agreements and return protocols with a number of third countries such as India, Nepal, Vietnam, Pakistan and Bangladesh, while an agreement with the Congo is also expected soon.
At the European level, Mr. Nouris said that a continuous and systematic effort was made to raise awareness among European partners, achieving the signing of four memorandums of understanding and support, the financing for the construction of the new Hospitality Center and the Pre-Departure Center amounting to €67.5 million. from the European Commission, the provision of financial aid of 10 million from Switzerland for the construction of the new buildings of the Asylum Service, aid of 1 million from the Czech Republic and 1 million from Hungary to finance the voluntary returns of immigrants whose applications have been rejected, while in 2022 a plan to relocate a small number of asylum seekers to other member states such as France, Germany, Bulgaria and Luxembourg was launched and is ongoing.
He added that in Cyprus they arrived in addition to strong>78,000 Ukrainian refugeesdue to the Russian invasion, of which 16,000 remain in the country to this day, with the Ministry taking on the responsibility of receiving and registering the refugees, who enjoy the full support of the government.
In a question regarding the statements of the independent candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, Andreas Mavroyiannis, regarding immigration and, as he says, the inadequacy and sloppy management of the Ministry, which, as he states, leaves a legacy to the next government in addition to the 33,000 pending asylum applications, Mr. Nouris replied that the flows of immigrants to the Republic of Cyprus during the period to which Mr. Mavroyiannis refers ranged from 500-1,200 a year, while in 2022 they reached 21,000.
He added that he would expect someone who is running for the Presidency of the Republic to be at least objective and to recognize the diversity of that period, and at the same time, instead of declaring that he opposes the measures to stop the inflows, to realize that it is not possible, despite the fact that the efficiency of examining asylum applications has quadrupled, it should be mentioned that the answer to solving the immigration problem is to speed up the procedures.
Having already drastically reduced inflows (virtual marriages and virtual students) and achieved a very significant limitation of sea flows, the problem of the Green Line remains, Mr. Nouris continued, adding that despite the fact that the PG is not an external border, and this Europe itself realized this, drastic measures must be implemented to limit crossings, returns must continue and a very clear message must be sent to traffickers with severe penalties, with the legislation in the Republic of Macedonia providing for up to 12 years in prison.
“Everything is known now. The root cause of the immigration problem in Cyprus is very well known and it goes by the name of Turkey. In the last 18 months, Turkey has systematically changed the demographics of immigrants and where the first 10 countries among immigrants were mainly Asian countries, they are now sub-Saharan African countries”, the Minister emphasized, adding that the Government is moving in the direction of Turkey, because that is where the problem is.
Questioned about whether there has been progress regarding the updatingreceived by European partners during his term, following the MED5 meeting and more generally in the debate on the European Asylum and Migration Pact, Mr. Nouris replied that progress is too slow as there is an important obstacle concerning solidarity between EU member states, while so far there has been interest from countries, mainly France and Germany, for help on a voluntary basis, but not for compulsory relocation.
“We are adamant that there should be a single immigration and asylum pact,because we don't want to see again the conditions of 2015 being experienced by the European countries”, emphasized the Minister, adding that Europe should adopt a unified policy on how to deal with it, with Cyprus having taken very specific initiatives in this direction , having filed last October an informal document with which it recommends, among other things, a differentiation in the mechanism for submitting asylum applications so that it is possible to examine asylum applications outside the country of arrival, as well as a unified approach to the issue of punishing traffickers.
He also reiterated Cyprus's position on the need for EU investments in the countries of origin and not only in the host countries, adding that if jobs and decent living conditions are created in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, it is certain that many will choose to stay in their country and will not take the way to end up in Europe.
“So it is time when a holistic approach is needed, a possibly different perspective in dealing with immigration and we as Cyprus, we have already submitted these positions to the Council of Internal Affairs”, he added.
In response to a question on whether Europe has taken concrete reaction measures towards Turkey and whether it remains only in admonitions regarding the instrumentalization of migration, the Minister said that there have been too many efforts in the last year on the part of the EU at the highest level to the Turkish government, there is simply no response from the Turkish side regarding this specific issue.
He added that at the same time it should be noticed by the Turkish Cypriots who might be interested in a solution to the Cyprus problem that allowing these thousands of irregular immigrants to exist and congregate in the occupied territories clearly does not help the possibility of a solution to the Cyprus problem and that they should decide if they want to manage these people just to make significant financial gains benefits.
“So I think it is the time of responsibility, not only for us but also for the Turkish Cypriot compatriots our citizens to take action for our own homeland, for our common homeland that we want to say that we are trying to solve the national problem”, he added in this regard.
