The decision of the Republic of Cyprus to suspend the examination of asylum applications from Syrian nationals is in full force, government sources told philenews.
It reported that an official message was sent early in the morning to all members of the Asylum Service, instructing them to forward all case files to the archive.
All interviews scheduled for today with applicants who had sought asylum in Cyprus have been postponed until further notice.
The procedure for an irregular migrant is as follows:
- The migrant submits a request to an official, who briefly records the reasons why the individual left their country.
- The migrant is then called for an interview and their application is assessed by the Asylum Service to determine whether there are reasonable grounds to grant asylum.
- If the application is rejected, the applicant is given one month to appeal the decision.
10,000 pending applications
There are currently 10,000 pending applications, Director of the Office of the Minister of the Interior Loizos Hadjivasiliou told the Cyprus News Agency.
He explained that the decision taken by the Republic of Cyprus is based on a European mechanism that is activated in cases of increased and exceptional migratory flows.
The suspension of applications will remain in effect until at least the completion of efforts at the European Union level to designate specific regions of Syria as safe, philenews reported.
The return of Syrian migrants who do not receive asylum is a challenge for the government, as their resettlement in Syria is deemed precarious due to the situation in the neighbouring country.
The Republic of Cyprus intends to exhaust all available time frames before resuming the examination of applications. Specifically, a letter was to be sent to the European Commission today, informing them that Cyprus is activating a relevant directive by suspending the examination of applications within the provided time frame of 21 months.
According to the announced measures, new arrivals will be able to submit their applications (without them being examined) and will then be transferred to reception centres where they will be provided with in-kind reception conditions, namely food and accommodation, but without the right to receive benefits.
Those who choose to leave the reception centre will not be entitled to any benefits.
Additionally, they will not have the right to access employment for the first nine months.
No legal basis
Cyprus Refugee Council coordinator Corina Drousiotou told in-cyprus on Monday that there is no legal basis for excluding a specific nationality from asylum applications.
She explained that a similar measure was tried during the administration of Nicos Anastasiades, but failed to bring any results.
“This measure was also tried in 2022, during the previous government, and did not bring forward results, as it did not reduce the arrivals of Syrian nationals”.
Read more:
