Cypriot political parties were divided over Wednesday’s redesign of the European Union’s migration system.
A total of 10 separate pieces of legislation were passed by the European Parliament on Wednesday night, providing for a stricter and more unified approach across the bloc to the processing and settling of asylum seekers.
Disy were broadly in favour of the changes, while Akel and the Green Party were both vehement in their opposition to them.
Disy on Thursday echoed the government’s characterisation of the redesign as “a step in the right direction”.
“For the first time, strict legislation is being established to manage this very serious issue, while, at the same time, collective responsibility and solidarity are being incorporated for the states which find themselves under the greatest pressure, such as Cyprus.”
They also expressed their support for agreements struck with third countries, as well as plans to take measures against “countries which weaponise migration such as Turkey”.
Additionally, they criticised those against the changes, saying “unfortunately, the European left and the extreme Eurosceptics have once again shown their nihilistic face. With their attitude, they would have essentially chosen to keep the current situation as it is.
“Once again, the extremes of each side met each other in their sterile and dead-end policies.”
Akel opposed the changes, offering three reasons for their disapproval.
The first, they said, is that “the pact maintains the basic principle of the Dublin Regulation, which stipulates that the responsible member state for each applicant as the state in which they first arrive in the EU. This perpetuates the confinement of refugees and migrants in frontline countries such as Cyprus.”
Their second reason was the fact that relocation of people granted asylum between member states remains “voluntary” on the part of the states themselves. This is a point which the interior ministry itself had described as “less than ideal” in its own evaluation of the pact.
Their third and final reason was that the bill “fails to introduce what we have been asking for years in Europe and also in Cyprus: the establishment of a system for the distribution and accommodation of refugees in all the EU’s member states according to each’s population and capability.
“Instead, the new pact will allow some member states to take no share of the responsibility for hosting refugees and buy off that obligation by paying a sum for each person they do not accept on their territory,” the said.
They said, “the recent increase in refugee flows as a result of Israel’s military operations in Palestine and the bombings it launches in Syria and Lebanon should immediately mobilise the European Union.”
They added that an “immediate distribution” of refugees among the bloc’s member states, as was done upon the outbreak of war in Ukraine, “is now imperative”.
The Green Party were even more scathing, describing the new pact as “inferior to the current circumstances”.
“On the one hand, it allows the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers, and on the other, an unprecedented tolerance is shown to governments which express extreme indifference by refusing to take on part of the economic and social burden that housing a few thousand refugees can entail.”
Tolerance of the position of these governments, they said leads to the extension of heartlessness, since the pact was not accepted by the far-right leaders in Hungary and Poland who objected to the solidarity causes.
“The EU must take bold steps to address the causes of refugees and migrants arriving and stop resorting to half measures which only favour traffickers.”
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Mail
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