President's letter to von der Leyen highlights 'critical situation' on migration

Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said Friday that Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades sent a letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, describing the "critical situation" in the country regarding migration.

Speaking to the press, Interior Minister said that about 12,000 immigrants have been granted international protection status and now remain permanently in the Republic, while 8,500 applications have been rejected only in 2021.

Commenting on the issue, after a meeting at the Ministry of Interior with the new Board of Directors of the Cyprus Land Development Organization, Nouris also said that there was a number of pending asylum applications, around 17,000 to 18,000 and in addition there are almost 7,000 others who were before the Court of International Protection.
 
The Minister furthermore noted that on 1 January 2021 the number of pending applications was 18,000 and while they managed to process 9,000 of them, due to the fact that another 11,000 entered the Republic this year “we have returned to the starting point”.

Nouris stressed that "we must reduce the inflow of illegal immigrants into the country", adding that after the last meeting on the issue and the approval by the Cabinet of a number of proposals, the mechanisms for tackling the problem will gradually start operating.
 
He added that a series of actions will be taken to limit the inflow from Turkey through the Turkish-occupied areas of the Republic and the Green Line and at the same in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs they will make every effort to speed up the return process.
 
The Minister of Interior also said that the Republic of Cyprus has formed an immigration policy in which there is a very clear separation of refugees and economic migrants and that Cyprus is willing to host those people but in order to do that they should restrict the manifestly unfounded applications.
 
Regarding the letter of the President of the Republic to the President of the European Commission, Nouris said that "it is a letter that essentially and truly describes the critical situation in which the country has come in terms of immigration”.

He stated that in the letter, President explained with numbers and figures the difficulty that Cyprus was facing and clarified that Cyprus is currently unable to accept additional numbers of immigrants.
 
For that reason, he added, the President called for the activation of Article 783 of the EU Treaty, for the temporary suspension of asylum applications and in order to ask the resettlement of asylum seekers to other EU member states.

As the Minister of Interior said, in the letter, Cyprus has also requested to be provided with technological assistance on guarding the external European borders and in order to protect the Green Line, from where 80% of the illegal immigrants are enter the Republic.

CNA/CST/TNE/AGK/2021
ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY