The recruitment of 300 special police officers with a contract of up to 28 months for the surveillance of the green line and other tasks related to dealing with the increased migratory flows, are requested by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior in a bill submitted to the Parliament.
The bill provides for the possibility for the Chief of Police to hire special police officers on a fast-track basis to perform support duties related to immigration and the immediate development of a 24-hour patrol program to cover the Green Line.
The 300 contract police officers will be recruited for 18 months with the right to renew their contract for up to 10 more months. Their tasks will include, among others, surveillance of the Green Line, control and escort of irregular migrants and guarding of detention centres.
Interior Minister Nikos Nouris referred to a state of emergency and the need to speed up recruitment procedures, saying that this country cannot afford to wait for lengthy decisions.
Furthermore, he said that if at some point the migrant flows decrease, the state will not continue to bear the salaries of these police officers. The annual payroll of these contractors is expected to amount to 7.8 million euros, while another 1.1 million euros will be needed for their equipment and 1.2 million euros for the purchase of vehicles.
He noted that in the first months of 2022, the Interior Ministry managed to return 1,645 illegal migrants out of the more than 7,000 that have arrived.
The Minister told the Legal Affairs Committee that the problem presented at the Green Line gives the image of a European country that cannot exercise any control, with Turkey increasing migratory pressure.
[/B][/B][/B]The Minister said he also presented to the EU the methodology followed by traffickers with the presentation of 317 travel documents. He said the procedure is departure from sub-Saharan African countries, with the migrants arriving via Istanbul at the illegal Tymbou airport. There they are given a 60-day visa and then they cross various points on the Green Line into the territory of the Republic.
Characteristic of the situation, he said, is that we have reached the point where migrants are calling the police and asking to be picked up.
Nouris expressed particular concern about the situation in recent months, noting that there were 7620 asylum applications in the first four months of 2022, compared to 2810 in the same period last year.
He also said that the RS asked the European Commission to suspend the possibility of receiving asylum applications, as had been done in Greece, which the EU did not allow.
He also noted that 92% of illegal migrant arrivals were from the Green Line in 2022 and that in the last 12 months the profile of migrants had changed, with the majority being from Congo, followed by, Nigeria, Syria, Pakistan and Bangladesh compared to mostly people of Asian origin coming in the past. At the same time he referred to increased rates of participation of Africans in cases of violent conflicts.
He explained that migrants do not want to stay in Cyprus and are misled by traffickers who tell them that they are coming to European territory and from there they can go wherever they want in the EU, however Cyprus is outside the Schengen zone and they end up being trapped on the territory of the Republic of Cyprus.
Mr. Nouris also explained that as has happened in other European countries with similar problems, a combination of physical barriers, surveillance units and cameras is needed to deal with the situation. He also stressed the importance of placing physical barriers to prevent the passage of migrants and said that phenomena such as the destruction by some of these barriers cannot be allowed to happen. He also called on the courts to be stricter on those arrested as traffickers.
Police Chief Stelios Papatheodorou noted the
importance of the speedy recruitment in 2-3 months of special police officers
to be properly trained and assist in the surveillance of the Green Line, where he said migrant traffickers have become discouraged.
However, the police unions expressed their disagreement, calling for the filling of permanent vacancies that exist in the police to meet these needs.
The President of the Cyprus Police Association Kyriakos Charalambous, noted the need to radically address the issue of migration through organized planning and spoke of hasty moves. He said that there are 600 permanent vacancies in the Police to be filled, and said that the handling of the green line is very delicate and that a contract worker with a 28-month employment horizon is not expected to show the same interest.
In the same vein, a representative of the ASDYK said that the government acted hastily and permanent staff should be hired for these needs.
On behalf of the Police Corps Equality Branch, Nikos Loizidis referred to a cloak for the 300 contract workers to enter the police branch, and said that there are 300 special police officers hired after 2002 who can take on these duties with 1.5 months of training.
The chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, DISY MP Nikos Tornaritis said the issue is extremely serious so the discussion will continue in the committee next Friday. He added that he called on the official side to respond in writing to MPs' questions and for MPs to deal with the law in the form of urgency. He expressed the view that the bill will be brought to the plenary soon.
AKEL MP Aristos Damianou said that the surveillance of the green line is a very serious and primarily political issue and the qualifications of those doing the surveillance should be sufficiently strict to avoid any problems in the future, let alone that these people will be armed. He said that AKEL would not decide on these issues lightly. He also acknowledged the need for increased surveillance of the Green Line, which must remain a ceasefire line and not turn into a hard border within the Republic of Cyprus itself in the eyes of foreigners.
DIKO MP Christiana Erotokritou[/B] stressed that migration is one of the most critical problems facing the country as it is being used by Turkey in a hybrid war in which it is instrumentalizing economic migrants and refugees. At the same time, he expressed the view that the first thing that should be done is to increase the number of deportations of all those whose requests are rejected. If the result of rejecting an application is to remain in the Republic, he said, then we have achieved nothing. DIKO, he added, will stand by the country, the people and the relevant ministry for whatever measures are necessary to limit the number of flows.
ELAM MP Sotiris Ioannou[/B] expressed satisfaction that yet another proposal of the party to tackle illegal immigration is being implemented and applied. He added that the problem which exists on the Green Line proves that it is an organised plan of Turkey to Islamise the free areas and should be treated with due seriousness as an attack and a hybrid war. He called for deportations of those in the country illegally, non-acceptance of new applications and cutting off any new flows.
The President of the Ecologists' Movement - Citizens' Co-operation Haralambos Theopeptou, said that there are many vacancies in the Police and regular recruitments could be made, while there are also many vacancies in the asylum service. He also questioned whether there was ever a campaign in Congo, where many migrants come from, so that they would know what would happen if they came to Cyprus and not be lured by traffickers. These people who come and think they can go anywhere in Europe are also victims of the traffickers, he said.
Source: CNA
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