The permanent secretary of the Cypriot Ministry of the Interior, Costas Constantinou, told the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties on Thursday 21 April about the difficulties encountered in managing the increase in migratory flows, partly linked to arrivals from the northern part of the island.
Migrants arriving in Cyprus represent “5% of its total population”, and the war in Ukraine, with arrivals of Ukrainian refugees, has increased the pressure. Since 2015, the island has received 51,200 asylum applications, including 13,200 in 2021, the Cypriot explained. The situation has worsened in 2022, with an additional 5,500 applications filed between January and March “compared to 1,600 over the same period in 2021”.
The Cypriot also said that almost 22,000 applications were still pending due to lack of staff, and 7,500 refusal decisions were also in the appeal phase.
The capacity of reception and detention centres is also saturated, as in Pournara, where up to 3,000 people have been received for a capacity of barely 1,000 places.
The official blamed the increases on Turkey, which “exploits” migration with flights to Istanbul from sub-Saharan Africa, followed by crossings via the Green Line onto the island.
At the end of 2021, Cyprus asked to benefit from a measure similar to the one proposed (and now completely deadlocked in the EU Council) to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia on the basis of Article 78.3 of the Treaty, but the European Commission had refused.
However, the European Commission confirmed on Thursday the tense situation in Cyprus, with “saturated centres”, as the island is now the EU’s leading country in terms of receiving asylum seekers per capita.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in early 2022 between Cyprus, the European Commission and the EU agencies (EUAA, Frontex, Europol) with a joint comprehensive plan of action which includes strengthening the capacity for the first reception of asylum seekers, improving the overall level of material reception conditions, implementing swift and efficient asylum procedures, improving the efficiency of the return system and developing a strategy for the integration of third country nationals.
The European Commission also said on Thursday that it had tested with Member States the possibility of “voluntary relocations” of asylum seekers, “but that was just before the war in Ukraine” - said Beate Gminder, from the migration working group - which then greatly disturbed the Member States.
For her part, the representative of the NGO EuroMedRights, Sara Prestianni, criticised Cyprus’ approach to returning asylum seekers from so-called safe countries, such as Egypt.
She called for more reception centres and an end to the return process.
Some MEPs, such as Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA, Netherlands), have accused Cyprus of pushback, for example to Lebanon. Cyprus signed an agreement with Lebanon in 2020 to send back anyone trying to reach the island by boat, which Mrs Strik said was “perfectly consistent with a practice of pushback”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)