How “European” is Europe’s way of handling the migration issue? – Article by AKEL MEP Giorgos Georgiou

 

 

Sunday 12 May 2024 “Haravgi” newspaper

It is an irrefutable fact that, as the easternmost external border of the European Union, Cyprus faces many problems related to the issue of migration. Which is further aggravated by the abnormal situation of the existence of the Turkish occupation and the confrontation line.

But let’s be honest. The root cause of displacement as refugees, the uprooting of people and migration of so many millions of people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa is ongoing wars, conflicts and foreign interventions. Interventions in which the EU and its member states have participated or even played a leading role seeking to promote their own economic and geopolitical interests.

Therefore, any discussion on the refugee issue must take as its starting point the responsibilities of the EU itself for the creation of the problem and its subsequent handling. A handling that follows the logic of “fortress Europe” with the strengthening of repressive mechanisms against refugees and the lack of real solidarity towards those member states that receive the largest part of the refugee flows, such as Cyprus.

But what do we mean by the lack of real solidarity?

Referring to the latest agreement on the legislative package for the reform of the European Immigration and Asylum Policy adopted by the European Parliament, the President of the European Parliament used phrases such as “History was made” and that the agreement was “Struck a balance between solidarity and responsibility. That is the European way”. Thus implying that the agreement was binding…

Except that it is not…Unfortunately, the agreement is left to the discretionary and voluntary sensitivity of member states. As well as on their wallets, since if they are ‘unable’ to accept relocations, they will have to wash away this inability in cash or in kind… 20,000 euros per migrant… If this is called solidarity with a member state, as Cyprus is in this case, then words have really lost their meaning.

We, as AKEL, both in Cyprus and in Brussels, have repeatedly stressed that this “European way” of thinking, this political agreement that we have before us, does not solve any problem. On the contrary, it tarnishes European values, does not constitute a historical change and reinforces the already failed policies pursued by the EU on this issue. Policies that both Mr Anastasiades and Mr Christodoulides supported, without disagreeing.

More specifically the agreement:

• It is based on and updates the problematic Dublin System, the “Europe-fortress” doctrine, which defines the first state of arrival in the EU as the responsible member-state for each applicant. In other words, refugees applying for asylum in the EU will continue to be trapped in the countries of the Mediterranean South, including Cyprus.
• It fails to introduce what the Left in Europe and states like Cyprus have been calling for years: the establishment of a system of distribution and accommodation of refugees across all EU member states without exception, according to the population and the capacities of each one. On the contrary, as mentioned above, the new Pact will allow member states to take no responsibility for the hosting of refugees and to buy out this obligation by paying the States of first arrival in cash or in kind.
• It increases the EU’s dependence on third, non-democratic, states such as Turkey and Libya to manage migration and control its borders.
• It weakens the human rights of those seeking asylum.
• It paves the way for more repression against refugees, a mixture that will strengthen the actions of human traffickers and slave traders, and multiply maritime tragedies. Equally important, it is being instrumentalised as a spearhead for the rhetoric of the xenophobic right-wing and far-right parties in Europe.

This in the long run also shifts the pole/mode of perception of all issues even further to the right. The statements (2023) of Manfred Weber of the EPP to the Funke media group that “Meloni is constructive for Europe, she stands by Ukraine, and as far as the rule of law is concerned there is no problem in Italy” are indicative.

But I will credit the President of the European Parliament for being honest, she was right when she mentioned that “this is the European way”…

It is a way that ignores the challenges faced by first host member states such as Cyprus, that oscillates between repression and giving the “green light” whenever big business needs cheap labour and that hides under the carpet long-standing outstanding issues that the European institutions, as a whole, refuse and/or have failed to address…

We, as AKEL and the European left, stand against them. Dynamically and constructively. Because we believe that Europe, the whole world, deserves better.

We shall continue to be at the forefront of this struggle.