Filenews 26 October 2022 - by Michalis Hatzivasilis
The procedures for the recruitment of the 300 contracted special police officers who will take over the guarding of the Green Line are underway, in an effort to stem the flow of migrants.
After the release of the relevant funds, a meeting was immediately convened at the Police Headquarters during which the details of the procedures to be done for the recruitment of the 300 specialists were examined. The meeting took place yesterday under the Chief Stelios Papatheodorou, the assistant chiefs, members from all the services involved and according to information from "F", the planning was made to initiate all the necessary procedures to announce the positions.
It is estimated that if everything goes smoothly, the announcement is expected to be made soon and early in the year the recruitments will be made. The 300 special police officers will be trained rapidly for a month at the Police Academy on the use of weapons, methods of apprehending and handling migrants. They will then be distributed to all Police Departments except Limassol. They will be given special equipment, vehicles and uniforms, with the relevant allocation reaching €10 million. It is noted that the adoption of the relevant legislation took place on 14 July last, but its implementation was delayed until the relevant funds were found.
Special police officers will have oversight duties throughout the Green Line and will be assisted by soldiers where there are outposts. The recruitment of the "300" is one of the three measures promoted by the government to reduce migration flows. Barbed wire has already been installed in various areas of Nicosia, which is not 100% effective, while at the same time the installation of a closed circuit monitoring of the blind and other points of the Green Line is being promoted. The electronic system will start to be installed from next month and has already been bought from an Israeli company. It will provide 24-hour monitoring of the Counter-Opposition Line and when an attempt by migrants to enter the free areas is detected, a signal will be sent to the 300 invigilators to intervene. The electronic eyes on the Green Line will be handled by the Aliens and Immigration Department of the Police.
Although the three measures are not considered to eliminate the problem with the entry of migrants from the occupied areas into the free areas, it is nevertheless anticipated that the problem will be drastically reduced. As estimated by the Ministry of Interior, 93% of migration flows enter from the occupied territories into the areas controlled by the Republic. As has been repeatedly pointed out, our country is lagging behind in the returns of illegal immigrants, since as it turned out, 100 return to different countries every month and a thousand arrive.
