Speech by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou at the Anti-Racist Anti-Racist Event
Sunday, 21st March 2021, Freedom Square, Nicosia
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 21st March 2021, Nicosia
We have gathered here today to state, once again, what should be self-evident.
That is to say, that no human being is illegal. .
That this land – which has seen Cypriot refugees and immigrants leave their country to go all over the world, in the 1950’s, 1960’s, after the 1974 coup d’état/invasion and the 2013 haircut on bank deposits – does not tolerate racism and fascism.
That it is inconceivable for us to observe with indifference children drowning in the sea.
That it is unthinkable for us to be locking up hundreds of people in detention centres for months without covering their elementary needs, leaving them just with one bottle of water during the day in the summer and without a blanket in the winter.
No one can claim anymore that they didn’t know.
And yet, every time we call on the Anastasiades-DISY Government to understand that migrants/refuges are people, to realize that it must fulfill its duty towards them, to be held to account about where the more than 100 million European funds given to Cyprus to host refugees went, the answer is always the same: “but do you want Cyprus to be overrun by foreigners? Don’t you want us to protect our culture?”
Unfortunately, the Anastasiades government’s record leads us to a horrible conclusion. It isn’t concerned neither about our culture, nor their concern about the demographic issue, nor about so-called race purity because if that was their real concern they wouldn’t have given passports even to the harems of their tycoon friends from Saudi Arabia. If that was indeed their concern, they wouldn’t have sold passports to people from all over the world who have never set foot here in Cyprus. Therefore, their criterion for people is not whether they are foreigners. Their criterion is whether they are rich because if they are rich, the government ruling forces have proved that they have no problem selling Cypriot citizenship to them.
If they were examining political asylum applications as quickly as they passport applications by investors/tycoons, they certainly wouldn’t have collected so many asylum applications that are waiting to be examined for years.
The government ruling forces have failed to handle the refugee problem, simply because they have never handled it. Unfortunately, they allowed the rackets/gangs to be the ones in command. Applications have been pending for years. Thousands of people are still waiting for these applications to be processed and the pandemic has worsened the whole situation.
The first reception area at Pournara has been turned into a concentration camp for months with unacceptable detention conditions. Despite the recommendations and observations of numerous institutions and NGO’s, the Anastasiades-DISY government pretends that there are no problems. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has already sent a letter on the deportation and mistreatment of refugees by the Republic of Cyprus. Once again, the government ruling forces are exposing us internationally.
Worst of all, when they did decide to actually do something, what did they do?
Did they elaborate a strategy for handling immigration or for employing foreign labour force?
Did they use the funds allocated for a dignified living of refugees to avoid living on the streets?
No, they did none of this. From all that they could have done, what they came up with was to install eleven kilometers of barbed wire on the ceasefire line. This move, apart from not addressing the refugee issue in any way whatsoever, has political implications.
Such actions do not just reveal the sloppiness, incomprehensible and unacceptable mindset with which the government views the whole matter. People are wondering government ruling forces are questioning the people who a while ago watched the revelations that the president was secretly discussing a two-state solution and now the government is laying barbed wire, giving more kilometers of land in possession and sending the message everywhere that our border is in Astromeritis.
We call on the Government to assume its responsibilities, gather up the barbed wire it has installed and handle the issues as it ought to.
The examination of asylum applications should be speeded up.
Modern ways of monitoring the ‘green line’ should be found and not through the installation of barbed wire.
The government should investigate the illegal actions of the rackets/gangs that bring in hundreds of foreign workers as students and then force them to abuse the asylum system and not target refugees who are fleeing their homeland to save their lives and those of their children.
The millions of Euros in European funds must be utilised for a dignified stay and living of refugees and migrants.
The government ruling forces must address their fraternal party, the European People’s Party in the European Parliament to convince it that every country must accept their share of refugees according to its means, something they didn’t do when the relevant agreements were being discussed and approved.
In conclusion, we address on behalf of the Central Committee of AKEL a warm greeting of solidarity to all immigrants and refugees living and working in Cyprus.
We convey our warmest greetings to Cypriot and foreign workers who are waging together the struggle for a dignified life, the struggle against racism and neo-fascism.
As far as AKEL is concerned, we shall continue to cultivate respect for every person and every culture.
We shall continue to expose those primarily responsible for the refugee flows, namely imperialism that generates wars, capitalism that reproduces poverty and capital that exploits the cheap labour of the weakest, namely foreign workers. We insist that the only answer is to strengthen the organization of working people.
For us, no immigrant is an enemy. No refugees are a threat.
That is precisely why we will not stop struggling in solidarity with the peoples of Europe, with the peoples of the world against racism and neo-fascism, for the right of every human being to life and dignity!
Long live the friendship of the peoples!
