Filenews 4 March 2022
Another important agreement was concluded today by the Republic of Cyprus to strengthen the sector of returns, those whose asylum applications have been rejected, which is for the Ministry of Interior one of the most important objectives in the effort to relieve the country from the excessively increased flows.
On the sidelines of the Meeting of Ministers of Internal Affairs of the European Union, the Minister of Interior signed with the Executive Director of FRONTEX, Mr Fabrice Leggeri, the Operational Action Plan agreed a fortnight ago in Nicosia. The signing of the Action Plan now puts the cooperation between the Republic of Cyprus and FRONTEX on a new basis, significantly strengthening the support and operations of the Organisation in Cyprus.
The Minister of Interior, thanking the Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri for the support provided to the Republic of Cyprus, announced the creation of a return office in the Administration of the Ministry of Interior with the aim of maximizing the use of the assistance that FRONTEX will provide, in order to simplify and speed up the procedures, but also to shorten the times.
In another development, the Minister of Interior had today in Brussels a meeting at the Belgian Ministry of Interior, with his Belgian counterpart Sammy Mahdi, responsible for Asylum and Migration issues, with the sole topic of discussion being the cooperation of the two countries on the return of Congolese nationals to their country. With the assistance of the Belgian Government, a first joint return flight to Congo has already taken place, while the two Ministers have agreed to increase the number of flights at regular intervals in order to help Cyprus, which has recently recorded an increased number of arrivals from that country.
