Why AKEL voted against the New Pact on Migration and Asylum
Statement by AKEL C.C. member Marina Savva
11 April 2024, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
The Pact on Asylum and Immigration was voted through in yesterday’s plenary session of the European Parliament. AKEL voted against the Pact for the following reasons:
- The Pact maintains the core principle of the Dublin System, which defines the member state responsible for each applicant as the first country of arrival in the EU, thus perpetuating the confinement of refugees and migrants in frontline countries such as Cyprus.
- It provides for resettlement but for specific categories of vulnerable persons and on a voluntary basis.
- It fails to introduce what we have been calling for years in Europe, but also here in Cyprus too: the establishment of a system of distribution and accommodation of refugees across all EU member states according to the population and the capacities of each one. On the contrary, the new Pact will enable member states not to take a share of responsibility to host refugees and to buy off this obligation by paying a fee for each person they do not accept on their territory.
The recent increase in the flow of refugees as a result of the military operations launched by Israel in Palestine and the bombing of Syria and Lebanon must immediately mobilise the European Union. The immediate distribution of refugee flows across all member states, as was done in the case of the Ukrainian refugees, is now imperative.
11.4.2024
əˈɡenst
against
