The Plenum of the Parliament approved the regulations for the recruitment of 300 special contract police officers to deal with the increased migratory flows, following the approval of the relevant law in the previous session of the Plenum.
According to what was reported to the relevant committee of the Parliament by the Ministry of Justice, the contracted special police officers will be assigned to the Aliens and Immigration Service of the Cyprus Police.
The number of contracted special police officers to be recruited is three hundred and their supervision will be entrusted to police officers holding the rank of sergeant.
Contracted special police officers will be recruited for an initial period of service of eighteen months which may be renewed once for a further period of ten months.
Their duties will be limited to immigration matters, namely surveillance of irregular migrants' crossing points along the Green Line, control of irregular migrants and their illegal employment, transport and escort of irregular migrants, guarding and surveillance of reception or accommodation centres for asylum seekers or places of detention of irregular migrants and procedures for the expulsion of irregular migrants.
The recruitment qualifications were established by analogy with those in force and applicable to the National Guard for the recruitment of Contracted Armed Forces Officers (CAF).
The Parliament rejected by 12 votes in favour and 22 against an amendment by Aristos Damianou on behalf of the AKEL parliamentary group, which aimed to broaden the qualifications that candidates for recruitment as special contract police officers must possess by adding the condition of previous success in a psychometric examination, which will be carried out according to the standards of psychometric examinations for the recruitment of police officers and special police officers.
DISY MP Nikos Tornaritis opposed the amendment stating that the government is asking for the urgent recruitment of special police officers as the Republic of Cyprus is facing a very serious issue. At the same time, he said that they are urgently asking for EU solidarity in the problem.
DIKO MP Panicos Leonidou said that the amendment may have merit in substance, but at this stage it is dealing with an urgent national problem.
AKEL MP Aristos Damianou said that those who do not want the psychometric tests to be carried out should beg and pray that there is not even one unfortunate incident because they will have to be held accountable.
EDEK MP Kostis Efstathiou said that he agrees that the regulations are written in an extortionate, sketchy way and leave loopholes, however he said that we are not running out of time, the whole thing has to end, as Cyprus has become a dry vine.
PPP MP Alekos Tryfonidis said that the special police officers are hired the way the 3000 SYOPs were hired without psychometric tests. He called in general for the psychometric tests to be removed, since, he said, we are removing tools that we give to the police and in the end we do not find a solution.
MEP of the Ecologists Stavros Papadouris said he was against the AKEL amendment since it would lengthen the procedure for dealing with the problem.
Ecologist MP Alexandra Attalidou spoke in favour of the AKEL amendment and against the regulations, stating that the recruitment of police officers will do nothing to prevent illegal immigration, as they will already be on the territory of the DR. He also said that those in favour of arming people and entering the green line without psychometric tests would be responsible for any incident.
In the same vein, President of the Ecologists Haralambos Theopeptou said that we should "be very careful to whom we give weapons".
Tornaritis countered that there would be several weeks of special training, noting that we send our 18-year-olds into the army, they carry guns and face many dangers.
Source: CNA
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