The Government Spokesman Mr. Marios Pelicanos made the following statement to the media on the margins of the European Council meeting taking place today, 16 December 2021, in Brussels:
"During the afternoon proceedings of today's European Council, the President of the Republic, among other things, informed his counterparts about the magnitude of the problem Cyprus is facing due to the very increased migratory flows which, for a long time now, have made the Republic of Cyprus by far the first EU Member State in terms of the number of applications for political asylum in proportion to its population.
He further pointed out that, today, the percentage of asylum seekers or already holders of protection status reaches 4.4% of the population of Cyprus, while at the same time this percentage, in proportion to the population, does not exceed 1% in the other frontline Member States.
President Anastasiades also referred to the fact that the vast majority of persons seeking asylum in Cyprus are persons from safe countries of origin, who arrived in the occupied territories from Turkey and from there were taken to points along the ceasefire line from where they subsequently crossed illegally into the free areas.
The President of the Republic denounced the unacceptable instrumentalisation of migrants by Turkey and stressed the need for the EU to take effective measures to prevent such phenomena, both by Turkey and by any third country that exploits human suffering in an attempt to obtain perverse political benefits.
He also referred to his recent letter to the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, in which he described the dramatic situation in Cyprus and the unbearable pressure on the State and the Immigration and Asylum services, and what is required from the EU to alleviate the problem.
After explaining that the Cypriot requests in no way negate the obligation of the Republic of Cyprus to support the right to apply for international protection or to continue the examination of ongoing asylum procedures, as enshrined in international and European law, President Anastasiades stressed the importance of immediately finding ways of practical assistance to Cyprus from the EU and its partners, which assistance should be specifically tailored to Cypriot specificities and needs.
One step in the right direction would be for the EU to assist in carrying out immediate and compulsory returns of persons whose asylum application has been finally rejected by the Cypriot authorities.
Cyprus should also be provided with the capacity and means to manage and guard the Green Line, which remains our Achilles' heel, without of course constituting a border in any way.
Finally, the President of the Republic concluded, Turkey's implementation at last of the 2016 Declaration on migration, including vis-à-vis the Republic of Cyprus, is also of utmost importance.
PIO
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Sourcehttps://www.pio.gov.cy/ανακοινωθέντα-άρθρο.html?id=24871
