The first Informal Council of Interior Ministers under the French Presidency discussed France's procedural proposal in order for the Pact on Immigration and Asylum to take a step forward and break the deadlock in the process.
Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said in his intervention that Cyprus clearly supports the French initiative, but at the same time clarified that this can be easily implemented if certain key issues are clarified.
In an effort to assist in this direction, Cyprus has put forward specific suggestions with the Minister stressing that it is decision time because Europe is at risk considering that new, additional migrant departure points are likely to emerge soon.
On the issue of the external dimension of migration raised by the French Presidency, Cyprus, through the Minister of Interior, supported the need for active and generous support to third countries to enable the detention of their nationals in their country of origin, with FRONTEX taking an active role in the surveillance of their external borders preventing outflows.
Nouris called for this to apply to the case of Turkey, with surveillance being extended to both the southern Turkish coast and the Istanbul airport from which thousands of irregular African migrants depart for Tymbou airport, who, he said, are then forwarded by traffickers to the Republic-controlled areas via the Green Line.
In the context of implementing a balanced approach to the issue, the minister suggested that what was done in the case of Lithuania should be applied, such as imposing sanctions on all Turkish airlines that systematically transport irregular migrants to occupied Cyprus.
Cyprus called for the European Commission to hold a dialogue with Turkey to discuss the lack of cooperation with member states on migration, including Cyprus.
The minister said that Cyprus unreservedly supports the initiative of the French Presidency, as well as President Emmanuel Macron's own statement for an agreement which must, however, be based on solidarity and responsibility. "And this solidarity must include the obligation of member states to relocate a number of migrants from those states that bear the greatest migratory burden," he said.
Following an earlier agreement between the French and Cypriot Interior Ministers, on the sidelines of the Summit, the Cypriot delegation had a meeting with representatives of the French Immigration Service, with whom the possibility of concluding a memorandum of understanding on returns, particularly to African countries, was discussed, in order to help Cyprus.
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