What the EU Interior Ministers have decided anything but expresses solidarity with Cyprus

 

12 June 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

The agreement reached by EU Interior Ministers on migration last week was presented as a “historic agreement” establishing a solidarity mechanism between member states, the Interior Minister declared. Yet what has been agreed is anything but “solidarity”. The agreement does not provide for what Cyprus needs and what the European Parliament and the Left Group have been calling for years. Namely, the replacement of the Dublin Regulation with a binding system that distributes the responsibility for hosting refugees among all EU member states, according to each state’s capacities.

Instead, EU member states that do not want to share the responsibility for hosting asylum seekers from first reception countries, namely the countries of the Mediterranean South, will be able to pay a sum per applicant, which will be deposited in a EU fund for the hosting of refugees in the host countries or in third country facilities. Therefore the agreement reached by EU Interior Ministers essentially “prices” asylum seekers with the rich northern countries paying and the southern countries becoming “warehouses” of people. At the same time, the EU will be funding North African states with billions of euros in an attempt to copy the notorious EU-Turkey Agreement elsewhere too that has become a weapon for exercising EU blackmail in Erdogan’s hands and at the same time, a means for the violation of human rights.

In other words, neither solidarity with the Mediterranean south, nor solidarity with those in need is envisaged in the recent agreement reached by the EU Interior Ministers.

AKEL’s position has been and remains the creation of a mechanism for the distribution of refugees and asylum seekers across all EU countries according to each country’s capacities and population.

More specifically, with regards Cyprus, the elaboration of a comprehensive and fair migration policy based on international and European conventions and making full use of European funding for migration, asylum and integration policies is imperative.