Filenews 15 April 2024
By decision of the Republic of Cyprus, all applications submitted from now on by Syrian migrants will not be examined, exercising the right provided by the relevant European tools in case of increased and extraordinary migratory flows, said the Office Director of the Minister of Interior, Loizos Hadjivassiliou.
These persons, he said, will be able to submit their application and will then be transferred to accommodation centers where they will be offered material reception conditions in kind, namely food and housing, without being entitled to benefits. Anyone who chooses to leave the shelter will not receive benefits.
Pending completion and efforts at EU level to designate specific areas of Syria as safe, he added, the examination of asylum applications will be suspended.
These people, he said, as in all cases of asylum seekers, will not have the right to access work for the first nine months.
He noted that the decision was taken as a result of increased migratory flows from Lebanon and will apply to all new arrivals from the day of the decision, which was yesterday, Sunday when there were 22 arrivals.
Replying to a question, he said that 10,000 applications, both old and recent, are currently pending and the examination of their application will not proceed.
Today a letter will be sent to the Commission informing Nicosia that it is activating a relevant directive suspending the examination of applications within the time limit provided, i.e. 21 months.
CNA
