Filenews 4 May 2023
Ready to throw themselves into the fight against illegal immigration are the 218 border guards, the special police officers who were quickly recruited to control the Green Line. On May 19, they complete their training and will be sent to the Police Directorates (except Limassol) to take up their posts. The border guards underwent training at the Police Academy, the MMAD and the Aliens and Immigration Service to know the laws, tactics and practices of handling migrants.
Contracted special police officers will perform auxiliary and support duties such as:
(a) Patrol cover or surveillance of possible crossing points for irregular migrants on the Green Line;
(b) Screening irregular migrants for the early detection of any smugglers or terrorists;
(c) Transport, movement, escorting of irregular migrants;
(d) Guarding and guarding accommodation centres and/or first reception centres and/or detention facilities for irregular migrants;
(e) Deportation of irregular migrants.
According to our information, the border guards will be in contact with the operators of cameras, which have started to be installed along the Green Line and as soon as migrants are detected trying to cross from the occupied to the free areas, they will be escorted to Pournara. At the same time, they will try to locate their trafficker so that he can be arrested.
The initial recruitment of 300 border guards was decided so that, together with electronic surveillance and the wire fence, they would constitute the triptych for reducing migratory flows through occupied areas. However, the new government has decided that it will not extend the fence as it considers it not a deterrent.
For the transportation needs of border guards, 40 double cabins have been ordered, but they have not yet been received, so they will use temporary vehicles of other police services. In order to fill the 300 positions, it is not excluded that a new call for tenders will be made soon.
This year the migratory flows are relatively reduced compared to last year, but it is expected that with the improvement of the weather the arrivals will begin mainly through boats from the east and west coasts of Cyprus. Already in recent days there has been intense activity, as migrants of various ethnicities arrived in rotten boats on the shores of Protaras and Polis Chrysochous.
