Filenews 13 October 2021 - by Vassos Vassiliou
One in five children born in Cyprus since 2015 comes from foreign parents with a total number of 14,913, as the Minister of Interior Nikos Nouris said yesterday while briefing the "Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee for the Study of the Demographic Problem".
Reflecting in figures the situation that prevails, the Minister of Interior mentioned that in the above period, 73,399 births were recorded, of which 53,915 corresponding to a percentage of 73.5% concern Greek Cypriot parents, while 4,571 births corresponding to a percentage of 6.2% concern Turkish Cypriot parents. The remaining 14,913 corresponding to a percentage of 20.3% are foreign parents.
In the period 2015-2021 (until September of this year) 209,684 persons were registered in the register of foreigners, of which 121,265 come from third countries and 84,419 from European countries.
ELAM MP Linos Papagiannis, who chaired the session, said that "the evidence that has been submitted shows that we do not have any room left to deal with the problem as a state". He also cited figures according to which there are elementary schools in which out of 18 students, 14 have an immigrant biography.
He also said that 65% of those who have received a dowry allowance from the state are asylum seekers. That is, 65% of the beneficiaries of this allowance are not our compatriots," he said.
Moreover, he referred to the case of Chlorakas, noting the following: "What I can promise you is that we will not stop the effort we have started and no matter how much some people try, we will not allow our country to proceed at these rates without doing everything in our power."
Mp Zacharias Koulias commenting on the numbers argued that "there are issues of national security and many other issues for our survival in this place, if we take into account the settlements we have from opposite".
DIPA MP Alekos Trifonidis said that it is "deafening and unprecedented that the dowry allowance given for births is also received by the newborn children of immigrants, with them numbering in 2021 at 1,281 compared to 837 given to Cypriots". He also described as unprecedented that a Cypriot could father 6 or 7 children from various women without taking the necessary measures. Finally, he described as unprecedented "famous Cypriots stacking 500-600 immigrants in one building, collecting €50 from each in miserable living conditions, the so-called slums".
