Cyprus has faced difficulties accepting and managing high numbers of migrants and plans to tighten its migration and asylum policies to avoid this in the future, Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said in a report
ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th June, 2020) Cyprus has faced difficulties accepting and managing high numbers of migrants and plans to tighten its migration and asylum policies to avoid this in the future, Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said in a report.
According to the minister, the country lacks the resources to accept and accommodate the current number of migrants, many of which are coming from safe countries and take advantage of loopholes in Cyprus' legislation to stay there.
"It is not just possible for the Republic of Cyprus to accept, accommodate and manage the current number of migrants. The EU itself in 2018 refused entry to 500,000 people. Our resources and capabilities are not inexhaustible, and the assistance we receive from the EU � and not only financial � is not enough," the minister wrote.
Nouris said that about 14,440 asylum applications were submitted from 2008 to 2013. From 2014-2020, the number of migrants spiked due to a humanitarian crisis, and 3.8 percent of Cyprus' population now accounts for asylum seekers. The minister stressed that a lot of migrants entered education courses or engaged in fake marriages in order to subsequently receive asylum.
"In the context of the new policy, decisions jointly developed by the ministries of education and the interior set very strict conditions and drastically reduce the 'windows' in the system [for obtaining asylum]," the minister said.
Starting from the next academic year, applicants will have to confirm their ability to pay the tuition fee for the first year of study, prove that their life is in danger in their homeland and confirm a good command of English. Such migrants will also be restricted from working in Cyprus.
The Interior Ministry also prepared three bills against so-called virtual marriages. According to Nouris, about 4,000 of such marriages were registered in Cyprus from 2017-2019.
