Cyprus Mail 11 September 2022 - by Jean Christou
After many months of difficult negotiations, the EU has recognised the instrumentalisation of migration by Turkey through the Green Line, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
The ministry cited the development as “a maximum diplomatic success” the recognition of the instrumentalisation of migration by Turkey through the Green Line, “which now offers new possibilities to deal with illegal immigration,” the ministry said.
It said that more specifically, in the text of a compromise proposal of the Czech Presidency of the EU Council EU to address situations of instrumentalisation in the field of asylum and migration, the Cypriot interior ministry succeeded in introducing a special reference to the Green Line.
It states: “Although the Green Line is not an external border, it follows that the situation in which a third country or a non-state body encourages or facilitates the movement of third-country nationals to cross the line should be considered as instrumentalisation.”
“The summary of this reference in an official EU regulation is also Europe’s first official admission for the instrumentalisation of migration by Turkey through the Green Line and now clearly provides the opportunity to the Republic of Cyprus to face the hybrid threat of Turkey and to stop the daily illegal crossings of irregular migrants channelled through the occupied territories by adopting all those means and measures that are applied at the external borders of the European Union, without the Green Line being considered a border,” the ministry added.
Calling it an extremely important development, the ministry said the development comes at a time when Turkey is intensifying its threats daily, mainly against Cyprus and Greece.
“Now the instrumentalisation of migration through the Green Line is transformed from a Cypriot issue to a European one and as such is expected to be addressed from now on,” the ministry concluded.
