TODAY, Europe will complete the extraordinary process of reunification that began with the domino collapse of Communist regimes across Eastern Europe in 1989, extending the Schengen area across all the former Eastern Bloc countries that joined the EU with Cyprus in 2004.
From today, there will no longer be any border controls across the continent, from the Atlantic to the Russian and Ukrainian borders, as the EU extends its area of free travel deep into the east.
But Cyprus is not included in this extension of free movement, principally because the EU sees the island as a sieve for trafficking of all kind, but most particularly for illegal immigration.
The government, understandably, will point to the Turkish occupation and to the existence of illegal entry points into the island, not controlled by the authorities of the Republic. Indeed, there is no doubt that Turkish Cypriot immigration and customs controls are not to the standard of the European Union, and even less to the draconian levels required of an external border of the EU.
But it is not enough to blame Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots. In September this year, the European Commission issued a damning report criticising the government’s attitude towards the Green Line. “The Commission is of the opinion that the surveillance of the Line conducted by the Republic of Cyprus between the crossing points… needs further strengthening without delay,” the report said, adding: “The number of third country nationals crossing the Green Line illegally remains an area of serious concern.”
The Commission then put its finger on the core problem: the Republic of Cyprus, it said, was reluctant to take any measure that possibly could lead to the Green Line taking on the appearance of an external border; because of this, no additional surveillance equipment was purchased or foreseen, and the number of personnel dealing with illegal migratory flows at the crossing points had not been increased.
The irony is that the government barely misses an opportunity to lament the flow of immigrants, drugs, weapons, even livestock diseases, across the Green Line. And yet still it refuses to take measures. Over the past few years, this administration has overseen a deterioration in relations between the two communities that has erected a psychological border more formidable than any physical divide, and yet still it insists on meaningless symbols that carry significant costs to our own society and to Europe as a whole.
We may not care about joining the Schengen area, but there will soon come a time when the EU will force us to treat the Green Line as a proper border to halt the migratory flows that are one of Europe’s top concerns. And they will be joined by the Americans, concerned at the security risk of uncontrolled borders at the gates of Europe.
