Filenews 21 May 2021
Cyprus is entering a state of emergency over migration, Interior Minister Nikos Nouris said Friday, sending a written statement to the European Commission yesterday, noting that there is no other possibility of welcoming additional informal migrants.
In a statement, Mr. Nouris said that "in the last week we have been receiving a wave of arrivals on a daily basis by sea from the southern coast of Syria and especially from the port of Tartus. This situation, together with the overcrowding presented by the Reception Centres, has forced me to send yesterday afternoon a written deed to the European Commission informing them that Cyprus is entering a state of emergency with regard to migration and with no other possibility of receiving additional migrants."
He added that "at the same time we are asking the European Commission for its immediate and active intervention to prevent illegal departures from the Syrian coast and in particular from the port of Tartus, in order to minimise the problem we face."
Asked about delays in screening of informal migrants arriving in Cyprus, the Minister replied that "there are no delays in checks. Since 1 January we have given almost 4,000 rejections of asylum applications to those from the so-called safe countries." He noted that "the problem is that rejected asylum applications must be accompanied by fast-track return procedures, returns that are extremely difficult to make from a small country, such as Cyprus because there are no transnational and bilateral agreements with a number of third countries".
It is for this reason, he continued "that this is a constant, permanent and aggravating request of the Republic of Cyprus to the European Union and for which we have the support of too many European countries, namely that these agreements on the return of third-country nationals should be made centrally by the European Union and provide that third countries undertake to welcome their nationals from all European countries. This is something that we discussed last week in the Council of Interior Ministers, in the presence for the first time, of Ministers from the African continent and from sub-Saharan Africa, from which we have too many migrant arrivals."
In response to another question, the Home Secretary replied that the boat that arrived from Lebanon last Sunday was "returned to Lebanon because we have a bilateral agreement. But the vast majority, especially those arrivals arriving in our country since last Saturday, are recorded by the Port Police, as being from the southern coast of Syria."
According to Mr Nouris "I have been and am very specific to the European Commission, both with regard to the situation in which the country is in and what we specifically want from the European Commission. There are possibilities and our country must be supported as a European state facing this problem."
Asked to indicate whether there was co-operation with the British Bases to further control the counter-planning line for the arrival of migrants from the occupied territories, given that 14 people arrived in Avgorou today, the Home Secretary said that "so far with the British Bases we have had a very good cooperation and we have not had any particular problems with the crossing. I want to hope that this particular event was accidental, which is in the process of being investigated."
Asked about the length of time that informal migrants remain on boats arriving on the shores of the Republic until their data is checked, Nikos Nouris replied that "at this time we cannot welcome others. So at this hour our focus and concern is to see how we manage the situation."
He also said that "the previous boat that arrived and in which several children were on board, the migrants were received, because precisely the possibilities of entering Pornara are zero and we were forced to set up a makeshift settlement, with tents in the Protaras area. This is certainly not what is desirable for us to deal with this humanitarian crisis."
The Minister of the Interior also said that "it is not the Government's intentions to make Cyprus a vast migrant camp. We have specific possibilities, we are in a good situation to help people in real need, but at the same time we want to send a clear message that our possibilities are not inexhaustible and we have long since passed these reception possibilities."
In another question, Mr Nouris reiterated that "from the European Union, in addition to informing us that Cyprus is now in a state of emergency for migration, with zero reception capacity for other migrants, we have called for the Immediate Intervention of the European Union in a concrete way to control the southern coast of Syria so that there are no additional departures of illegal migrants from Syria , with particular reference to the port of Tartus from which we detect that the outflows are continuous".
KYPE
