Filenews 19 July 2021
"Cyprus is in a critical situation" in terms of the amount of asylum applications received by the competent authorities from people arriving on Cypriot soil, Interior Minister Nikos Nouris tells the Guardian newspaper.
"All reception centres are full and we simply do not have the capacity to accept more. If we want to talk about solidarity and responsibility, we must support member states on the border line, such as Cyprus, which is the leading country in welcoming asylum seekers," the Minister explains to the British newspaper ahead of the EU summit in Slovenia.
The Guardian cites data showing the very large increase in asylum applications submitted to the Cypriot authorities in recent years and notes that the majority of asylum seekers entering the territory of free areas initially arrive with traffickers from Turkey to the occupied territories.
Mr. Nouris warns, among other things, that beyond the coast there is a risk that a new front of arrivals will open up from the dead zone controlled by the United Nations. This comment is made in the case of three refugees, two men and one woman, from Cameroon who since the end of May have been "trapped" in the dead zone having initially reached the occupied areas, as the Republic of Cyprus does not accept to allow them to apply for asylum.
"If I accept these three people, then (such passages) will become the next standard practice. They'll come by the thousands. Turkey will put them on buses and send them to the barricades," the Minister tells the Guardian reporter highlighting the three cases.
However, the local representative of the United Nations Refugee Agency Emilia Strovolidou notes speaking to the newspaper that the three Cameroons have the right to apply for asylum for examination by the Cypriot authorities. He adds that their living conditions on the green line, in tents, are completely inappropriate.
Mr Nouris says the problem could be solved if the EU included Cyprus in a programme to redistribute asylum seekers among member countries.
Cna
