THE Movement for the Salvation of Cyprus from illegal immigrants said yesterday it was not racist or xenophobic but merely worried about the extinction of Greek and Turkish Cypriots from the island.
The Movement is planning a public discussion in Nicosia on Sunday to raise the issue of how the government and the Cypriot people should deal with illegal immigration.
Justice Minister Sophocles Sophocleous and EDEK’s honorary president Vassos Lyssarides will address the meeting. The topic of discussion is “Demographic Changes in Cyprus”.
The group was slammed on Wednesday by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), which is represented in Cyprus through immigrant support group KISA.
ENAR especially lambasted the Justice Minister for participating, since he is supposed to be the upholder of freedom from discrimination.
But Savvas Droussiotis, a representative of the Movement’s organising committee, told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: “We are not xenophobic because we are not against people coming to Cyprus who are here legally.”
“We don’t say people are unwelcome. If they have a permit to work legally it is fine because they have permission from the government and it means they are needed and welcome,” he added. “We can accept these people, but not illegals.”
Droussiotis said the fear was that if illegal immigration, especially that which comes through the north, was not stopped soon, the problem would worsen. He said the group was organising seminars to let people know about what could turn out to be a serious problem in a number of years, given the low birth rate among Cypriots.
He said illegal immigration was currently costing the government over £3 million per month. “If they do not take measures, in a few years the problem will be tremendous,” he added.
Droussiotis said it was not only an issue for the government, and a case in point was the hiring of illegal workers on building sites. “The people who employ them must be made to understand the costs to the economy of Cyprus as a whole, and to the people who are out of work,” Droussiotis added.
Droussiotis said the Movement was founded around a year ago and had some 500 members. “But it’s growing every day,” he said. “We do not have a bad name and we will not in the future,” he added, when asked whether the group could become a magnet for racists.
The group says on its leaflet that there are currently 700,000 Greek Cypriots on the island, 50,000 foreigners of EU nationality plus others who obtained Cypriot citizenship, and 160,000 legal and illegal immigrants from non-EU countries.
In the north, it said there were 160,000 Turkish settlers, 50,000 Turkish soldiers, and only 60,000 Turkish Cypriots.
This had already changed the demographic on the island, the group said, adding that immigrants now represented 18 per cent of the total population, while the average equivalent in Europe was only 8 per cent.
To keep levels at 8 per cent like in Europe, Cyprus must formulate a stricter immigration policy and beef up the buffer zone, the group said. It must also speed up asylum applications.
