Filenews 15 April 2022 - by Vassos Vassiliou
The disappearance of 11 unaccompanied children, the repatriation of 57 convicted persons, the disappearance of lawyers after their payment by asylum seekers, the increased flow of applicants, monkey students, trafficking in persons, cases of trafficking of foreigners, the arrests of suspected terrorists, the understaffing at the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare and the exploitation of applicants by property owners who rent premises "per capita", were some of the issues raised during yesterday's session of the Parliamentary Committee on the Interior.
According to a document from the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare, which provided answers to questions from MPs, the four unaccompanied children disappeared in 2019, three in 2021 and the remaining four in the first months of this year. The Deputy Director of the Asylum Service, Yiannis Sotiriadis, said that unfortunately the children have not yet been identified. The minors disappeared from the Purnara accommodation centre and are still being sought.
A document of the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare states that when an unaccompanied minor hosted at the Pournara KEPY does not show up to receive any meal at the specified time and place, the institutional officers of the Social Welfare Services (YKE) activate in the first stage the procedures for locating him/her within the Accommodation Center. If it is not possible to locate him, a Social Services officer who acts as the guardian of the minor and who declares the minor as a missing person to the Police Authorities is notified.
The fact that the authorities are actually taking the mobile phones/tablets, etc., also caused a sensation. of aliens and literally make them leaf and feather, looking at all the data in them to check whether there is evidence of an association with terrorism.
According to data from the Asylum Service, 83 minors were transferred to a hotel in Larnaca and 84 to a Paphos hotel. According to the same data, 261 potential unaccompanied minors had applied for international protection by the end of March.
In response to the Deputy Ministry regarding the accommodation expenses, it is stated that by decision of the Council of Ministers dated 7/10/2020, the accommodation expenses of families with minor children and vulnerable persons in a temporary residence area of one to three months can be covered. Hotels today host a total of 234 applicants for international protection, of which 50 are single with vulnerability characteristics such as people with special needs, the elderly, pregnant women, victims of trafficking in persons, persons with serious illnesses and the rest constitute 68 families. Their monthly housing cost amounts to €104,050 in total. Based on the above numbers, €444 is available per month for each person.
Regarding the returns of foreigners, Mr. Sotiriadis mentioned that so far 15 convicts have been repatriated from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the repatriation of another 42 convicts is imminent. He said that through the phones and tablets of the applicants, an effort is being made to check whether there is a connection of the holder with terrorism and added that this is because many come from war zones.
Applications for unaccompanied
Regarding the applications for international protection that have been examined, the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare informed the MPs that out of the 314 new applications submitted in 2020 by unaccompanied minors, the Asylum Service examined and took a decision on 173, while out of the 659 new applications of 2021, it examined and took a decision on 379 applications. For the rest, the examination and decision-making by the Asylum Service is still pending, but they have been placed either in a foster care program, in a semi-independent living program, or in institutions and structures.
Suspected of terrorism
Mr. Yiannis Sotiriadis said that tattoos or injuries that may have come from explosions, etc., refer to terrorism issues, so those who carry them are checked to ensure that they do not pose a threat to terrorist acts. As he said, three cases have arisen which refer to terrorism. One is in court, in the second one person is in custody, while in the third case instructions were given by the Attorney General to suspend the investigation and the controlled person was deported.
Regarding smugglers' cases, he said that 36 people (Syrians, Lebanese, Germans, French, Turks, one Cypriot) and citizens of other countries were arrested. Five cases are being examined this year. He also said that in 2019 there were 417 returns, in 2020 1272, in 2021 2320 and finally in 2022 there were 1373 returns.
Interior Committee Chairman Aristos Damianou praised the role played by NGOs in supporting refugees, adding that they cannot and should not replace the role of the central state. At the same time, he said that deficits were confirmed as well as violations of the rights of applicants and as a result the Republic of Cyprus is faced with the risk of being accused of such phenomena.
Positive effort and deficits
During the discussion, it was mentioned that by March of this year, 5,120 applications had been submitted, while for the whole of 2021, 12,600 were submitted and the need to more than double the staff of the Asylum Service was stressed so that they could respond.
Upon arrival of the applicants, they are given a statement mainly to see if there are any traffickers in the middle, but since many only know their first names, this is difficult.
Mr. Sotiriadis said that there are 2,680 migrants in Pournara and added that when it comes to children who are not accompanied by their parents but by other people, tests are carried out to determine if there is an issue of trafficking in persons.
The Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Anastasia Anthousi, said that every effort is being made to create the best conditions for unaccompanied minors, while recognizing as negative their prolonged stay in Pournara. There are, he said, another 40 minors who are still remaining in Pournara, even though the screening procedures concerning them have been completed. He also agreed to the report by the Chairman of the Commission, Aristos Damianos, that better coordination between the services involved was needed. He further said that in 2,000 cases the benefit was suspended so that those affected would be forced to register for social security. As has been said during the debate, there are 21 500 applications pending for consideration, in addition to the Ukrainians.
On behalf of the High Commissioner for Refugees, Ms Olga Komiti, commenting on relevant reports, indicated that according to the EU, 92% of Afghans and 91% of Syrians who seek protection prove that they are indeed refugees.
