Filenews 1 September 2021 - by Andreas Pibishis
The last Council of Interior Ministers of the European Union decided to activate the FRONTEX agency in the sea area of Cyprus to deal with irregular migration flows. Cyprus, in a letter from Interior Minister Nikos Nouris, had called for the activation of both the European Asylum Mechanism and Frontex, in order to protect the European external borders from irregular migrants.
The activation of FRONTEX has long been a request by Cyprus to prevent irregular and unauthorised arrivals using all available means of control.
The Ministry of Interior in its announcement expressed its satisfaction both for the adoption of all the recommendations of Nikos Nouris and for the decisive position of the Council in the effort to prevent a new wave of migrants. According to the Ministry of Interior, a new wave of migration, especially for Cyprus, if it occurs, will be catastrophic and extremely difficult to deal with, due to the specificity of the island with the existence of the green line.
The EU's Council of Interior Ministers, which convened an emergency meeting to examine the unsettled situation in Afghanistan, unanimously concluded that the situation as it is evolving requires immediate and effective handling in order to address the humanitarian dimension of the problem, as well as the issues of migration and security.
Guided by the crisis of 2015 and with the adoption, in the declaration issued, of all the suggestions that the Minister of Interior Nikos Nouris had proposed in his letter to the European Commission, as well as his counterparts on August 23, 2021, the Council proposes the full activation of all mechanisms and bodies of the Union, as well as the cooperation with international organizations, such as UNHCR and IOM, which are being activated in the region to address the situation.
The aim and objective is to support third countries neighbouring Afghanistan to enable the reception and hosting of flows there, offering protection, support and humane living conditions to displaced persons. At the same time, a strengthening of cooperation with these countries will be sought, with a view to strengthening the guarding of their borders, in order to prevent illegal immigration from the region by instrumentalising and exploiting Afghans by traffickers.
It is the common position of the Ministers for Home Affairs and Justice that the EU and the Member States should do everything possible to ensure that the situation in Afghanistan does not become a cause for creating a threat to the security of European citizens.
The full text of Nikos Nouris' letter:
