Statements by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL, Stefanos Stefanou, during his tour of Chloraka

 

6 September 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

That we are here today is no accident. The incidents have taken place. The far-right pogrom was committed in Chloraka. It is obvious that what happened in Chloraka and Limassol did not come as a shock.  It was obvious that there was an accumulation of mounting problems in the absence of a comprehensive and coherent government policy on migration that should include structures, infrastructures, procedures, policies and actions.

We have for several years been raising the issues concerning the rational handling of migration and refugee issues within the framework of international law, conventions and Treaties. Cyprus is in a geographical position that objectively receives migratory and refugee flows, so this policy must be in place so that we can handle the issue.

Unfortunately, the previous government said a lot but did very little, applying fragmentary policies, most of which were in the wrong direction. For example, the well-known and regrettable installation of barbed wire by the previous Interior Minister Nouris, which caused problems for the residents of the area, caused problems for the Republic of Cyprus in its relations with the UN and it of course did not deal with the problem as the Minister of Interior says today. Let me remind you that he was a Minister in the previous Anastasiades-DISY government too.

The problems are well known in Chloraka. They have existed for a long time. Mobilisations have taken place, visits too. AKEL has once again come to Chloraka precisely to see the problems and to the extent of our Party’s capabilities both inside and outside Parliament as an opposition party to contribute so that these problems are resolved. However, neither was political will demonstrated, nor had the previous government the ability to resolve them. That’s precisely why we have arrived at the sad state of affairs here in Chloraka.

We came here to talk to the relevant agencies and bodies here in the district of Pathos. A meeting was held a short while ago at the Pathos Police Centre with the participation of the Pathos Police Chief, the District Prefect of Pathos, representatives of the Deputy Ministry of Welfare and Social Welfare and the Asylum Service in order to be informed on what the situation is exactly because it is very important to have the correct information so that we know what the real situation is.

It is not a question of whether or not to reassure someone. The main problem is that there are not enough infrastructures in place to be able to handle the whole issue. Decisions had been taken. Let’s not forget that the previous government issued two decrees for the closure of the refugee complex, but the government itself did not implement them. That shows the magnitude of the problems.

In the case of Chloraka, the lack of a coherent and correct immigration policy is expressed in a specific way, due to the absence of sufficient infrastructures and adequate staffing of vital services to address the whole issue and so that we can pursue a policy based on international conventions and the commitments that the Republic of Cyprus has undertaken towards international law and that it must implement as a state governed by the rule of law.

AKEL never identified the demonstration, the peaceful mobilisation that the residents of Chloraka had organised, with what followed subsequently, namely the organised and planned incidents and pogroms that were committed by far-right groups.

These far-right groups were preparing these incidents in advance. And one of the criticisms that we made of the government is that people came to Chloraka to make incidents on purpose targeting foreigners and in the end Greek Cypriots too and destroying property.

Consequently, we are talking about a specific incident here that could have been avoided, but unfortunately was not. We denounce and condemn the incidents that the right-wing extremists committed. Secondly, AKEL has for a long time now been talking about the need for a structured policy to be implemented, which, as I have said, includes – and must include – infrastructures, procedures, policies and actions.

Let me give a concrete example. Due to the understaffing of the asylum service, the procedures for examining asylum applications were very lengthy. When you take five, six and seven years to process an asylum application, it is only logical that the number of asylum seekers increase dramatically with the flows that you receive.

The previous government inherited a few thousand asylum seekers and because of the lack of policy on its part, it handed over to the new government, if I include those who have gone to court, over 30,000 asylum seekers, because it took a long time to process applications, because of the understaffing of an agency that the previous government did not bother to staff.

The second example is the lack of infrastructures. Even yesterday, the Minister of Interior in Parliament said that there is no room to hold the illegals, many of whom have not had their applications approved, and cannot be handled by the state because there is no infrastructure in place to hold those who are illegal and proceed with the procedures to deport them.

I’ll give a third example. Since there aren’t enough infrastructures to accommodate those who are entitled, a place like the Pournara reception centre was de facto converted from a first reception centre where by law up to 72 hours someone can be there to collect their details and then send them to the other reception areas, with the result that it became an accommodation area. It eventually exceeded its capacity and went from accommodating 700 people to accommodating up to 3,000 in terrible conditions, people with different cultures and of all ages with all the problems that were eventually caused and are being caused within and around the area.

Something like this has happened in Chloraka with this particular centre, which has many and serious property problem. More problems were subsequently added because of the water and power cuts. It eventually became a hotbed of pollution with problems both within and around the area. When these problems are not dealt with in a timely and concrete way, these problems are subsequently magnified and when there is a rhetoric behind them that breeds the far right, then we have these specific pogroms.

So our own message is for this policy to proceed, we have to act fast, it’s the government’s responsibility to do this. We never refused anything the previous government asked for at this level. The previous government got what it asked for from parliament – they just didn’t implement it and simply didn’t apply that policy.

So we are here to discuss with the competent authorities and with the residents of Chloraka because we want the problems to be resolved and because we want to prevent the repetition of such shameful incidents as happened here and in Limassol too.