The Plenary Session of the Parliament approved into law a proposal submitted by Christos Christou, Linos Papagiannis and Sotiris Ioannou on behalf of ELAM, which amends the Law on the Establishment and Operation of an Administrative Court for International Protection.
The amendment provides for the reduction of the time limits provided for the registration of an appeal against decisions of the Asylum Service and the Refugee Review Authority from thirty to twenty days, as well as the reduction from fifteen to ten days for the lodging of an appeal against specific decisions or decrees provided for in the legislation.
In his statement to the Plenary, ELAM MP Sotiris Ioannou said that "the proposal was submitted in 2024 and with its passage it will result in a reduction in the deadlines for appeal in cases of rejection of an asylum application. That is, we are referring to persons who have a negative decision and are led to deportation." The existing procedures, as he said, "are systematically used as a tool for delay due to procedural windows, which is why all our moves are directed in a multifaceted way to those who exploit the system and unfortunately these are tens of thousands''.
He further explained that "the European directive is clear: Member States set reasonable deadlines for the exercise of the right to an effective remedy, which do not make it impossible or difficult to exercise this right". In fact, as he pointed out, there are countries with much shorter deadlines. "We have a long way to go in the migration issue and we believe that this legislation will also strengthen the effectiveness of our state by sending clear messages," he concluded.
The proposal was passed into law with 22 votes in favour (11 from DISY, 6 DIKO, 3 ELAM and 2 DIPA) and 16 against (13 from AKEL, 1 EDEK and 2 Ecologists).
