‘If people turn up with visas and money, there is no way we can turn them away’
THE NORTH sees itself as one of the “gatekeepers of Europe” and is doing all it can to reduce illegal immigration to the EU, Hasan Ercakica, spokesman for Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, said yesterday.
He also appealed to the Cypriot government for co-operation and help in reducing the numbers of illegal immigrants.
“If we have to act as gatekeeper, we accept that,” Ercakica told the Cyprus Mail, adding that the north was not a soft option for potential illegal immigrants seeking access to EU nations.
“It’s not easy for illegal immigrants to get into the TRNC,” he said. Iraqis, Syrians and Pakistanis, who make up the bulk of those claiming political asylum in the government-controlled areas, needed visas to ravel to the north, he said.
“To come here they need to obtain a visa from the Turkish Embassy, which represents us in countries where we don’t have our own representative offices”.
He conceded, however, that a number of those immigrants who ended up claiming asylum in the south had arrived in the north “legally”.
“If people turn up with visas and money in their pockets, there is no way we can turn them away,” he said, adding that this had been the situation in the case of the Iraqi martial arts team that crossed into the south and asked for political asylum last week.
The vast majority of the several thousand asylum seekers arriving on the island each year enter through ports in the north. While questioning the accuracy of this claim, the Turkish Cypriot leadership says that it is ready to work with the Cyprus immigration authorities and police in an effort to alleviate the problem.
“We want to work with the Greek Cypriot government and the EU on this,” Ercakica insisted, adding that the north’s administration had “no objections” to allowing EU officials into ports and airports to strengthen security measures.
“We’ve had European officials into Ercan [Tymbou] airport to advise us on raising standards,” he said, adding that the visit resulted in the recent upgrading of the radar system at the airport.
Ercakica now wants Greek and Turkish Cypriot immigration officials to exchange documentation on those the Greek Cypriots say have crossed from north to south.
“We know how many we catch, but we don’t know how many get through the net. The only way we can know is if the Greek Cypriots tell us, which they don’t”.
He also said that the successful prevention of illegal immigration would not be brought about by catching individuals, but by catching the criminals who make money out of aiding the immigrants in their struggle to get to Europe.
“If information is obtained from the immigrants about who helped them cross, and then this information is passed on to us, we could then take necessary action against those in the people smuggling business,” Ercakica said.
