A new European asylum and migration system is needed
Statement by AKEL MEP Giorgos Georgiou during the meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs of the European Parliament
“The problem is not migrants and the solution isn’t pushbacks and building a fortress Europe”
22 April 2022
“You mentioned crime and by implication one can associate your reference with immigrants, and for that precise reason I think it is important to stress that according to the figures released by Cypriot police, the majority of crimes are committed by Cypriots in collaboration with the underworld.
We need financial support from the EU. More importantly, we need a new European asylum and immigration system, that must be based on international law and on practical solidarity between member states.
Ukrainian refugees are, of course, welcome. However, there can be no good and bad refugees. Syrians, Palestinians and Africans are also refugees.
The situation in the host countries is tragic and the EU must provide assistance. Cyprus is receiving many asylum applications. 85% of the asylum seekers arrived through the territories occupied by Turkey by the force of arms.
The problem, however, is not the migrants. And if there is a lock to solve the problem, it is not through the imposition of pushbacks and the building of a fortress Europe. Instead it is the termination of the ongoing wars of conquest and the neocolonial policies being pursued that are looting and stealing the resources people need to live in their countries. Nobody wants to leave their home.
The problem lies in the absence of a comprehensive, European immigration policy based on solidarity and humanism.
We must speak the truth!
The Dublin 2 regulation has failed. Building a fortress Europe is simply making the problem worse. The Pournara migrant reception centre, which I visited just recently, is a disgrace to Cyprus, Europe and to our civilisation. It really is a disgrace.
From this reception centre, from 2019 to date, 11 unaccompanied children have gone missing! We want you to give us an answer as to what you will do for these children. It wasn’t toys that were lost. Children were lost and we don’t know where they are.
It is imperative that honest answers are given.
Does the European Commission intend to solve the problem, fundamentally, by implementing a permanent, fair system of relocation of refugees, according to the capacities of the member states?
What will you at long last do about Turkey, which receives 9 billion Euros from the EU and is instrumentalising the migration problem by transferring it to the EU in an unacceptable way, through the illegal movement of migrants through the Turkish-occupied territories of Cyprus?”
