The number of asylum seekers dropped in the first quarter of this year but there are still thousands of outstanding applications, according to figures released yesterday.
In the first three months of the year the Asylum Service of the government received applications from 1,101 asylum seekers, compared to 3,339 in the last quarter of 2003.
According to a statement from the UNHCR, there has been a spectacular decline in the number of Iraqi and Afghan seekers and a sharp drop in Russian cases.
“This is the eighth quarter out of the last ten during which the number of applications has decreased,” the statement said.
Betsy Greve, the UNHCR representative in Cyprus said that at the moment there are 370 people with official refugee status while there are around 4,500 pending cases.
Of the 370 refugees 41 per cent are woman and 59 per cent men. Ten per cent are children under 18. The vast majority have at least a secondary education while a considerable amount have tertiary education.
“One often reads negative articles in the local press about illegal immigrants,” said Greve. “The need for an adequate functioning national asylum procedure cannot be underestimated. Only a fair and efficient asylum procedure allows refugees to receive the recognition they are entitled to.”
Greve said many asylum seekers find it difficult to integrate into Cypriot society being only able to find low-wage jobs, being unable to speak the language and being the target of racism. She said many are not here necessarily to seek better life but because they have no other choice.
“There is no respect for why they might have left their country. Home is not only about legal rights. It is as much about acceptance, a sense of belonging and self worth,” she said. “There is a lot more room in Cypriot society to give more concentrated support for refugees.”
Greve said that while much progress has been made in Cyprus much still needs to be done particularly in creating the infrastructure to cope with the processing of applications.
Cyprus still doesn’t have an appeals board, which means that any rejected asylum seeker can appeal and the appeal cannot be heard and is put “into a drawer”.
In addition many applicants are in custody and it can take months until their cases are referred to the asylum services.
“There is a huge backlog,” said Greve. “But there is no way out for any government when it comes to dealing with asylum issues. If the government doesn’t allocate sufficient funding and have decent staff you will always have a backlog and those who are suffering from this backlog are the refugees.”
