Filenews 5 January 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
Thoughts on the construction of a new Court near the migrant accommodation areas in the Limnes area in Menoya, where the second Migrant Accommodation Centre is located, is being made by the Interior Ministry, in order to expedite the procedures for those whose applications for political asylum are manifestly unfounded.
The issue was discussed since it was judged that it will help to speed up the procedures and according to information from "F", it is the intention of the Minister of Interior Nikos Nouris to discuss it with the Supreme Court. At the moment, more than 7,000 appeals by asylum seekers, whose applications were rejected by the Asylum Service, are pending before the competent Court.
Due to the deterioration of the migratory situation and the accumulation of thousands of appeals, information tells us that the Minister of Interior, in the context of the improvement of asylum procedures, intends, among other things, to submit a proposal to the Supreme Court for the creation of a new Court of International Protection, in the area where the second Accommodation Center in Limnes is currently located and the Pre-removal Center that will be created there.
If the thought of a second Court of International Protection is implemented, it will be possible to increase the efficiency in the examination of appeals on the spot, and the costs and delays from travel to and from the Centre for those who appeal to the court will be reduced, since the new Court will be next to the place of residence. In the event that an appeal is rejected, then the applicant will leave the Accommodation Center and will be transferred to the pre-removal centre, in order to be returned to his country, as is the case abroad.
It is estimated that, in this way, genuine asylum applications will be examined more thoroughly and those that are well-founded will be approved, whereas now all applications are being examined by the same Court, with the result that due to the amount of work there will be a delay in the delivery of decisions, often to the detriment of the real refugees.
At the same time, after consultation between the Minister of Interior and his Greek counterpart, a judge who is an associate of the European Asylum Service was seconded from the Court of First Instance of Athens in order to advise the Cypriot authorities on the conduct of asylum procedures. Already, the magistrate has submitted a draft of proposals after a visit to Cyprus, in order to make the procedures for examining applications more rapid. However, in 2021, for the first year, 12,500 asylum applications were examined, while previously 1,000 to 2,000 are examined per year.
