THE INTERNATIONAL Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination should be a day for reflection and an opportunity for all of us to combat racism and every form of discrimination, Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said yesterday.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Ombudswoman Eliana Nicolaou to mark the International Day – which is observed on March 21 – Sylikiotis said that despite significant progress made over the last fifty years, racism continues to blight the lives of so many people around the world. “It is clear that racism as expressed today is the result of a relative sharpening of problems in general and of social insecurity in particular, including in developed societies”, he added.
Sylikiotis said: “Human principles and values such as equality, respect for human life and dignity, and dedication to democratic principles cannot always be taken for granted, even within fully-developed societies. As a result, immigrants as well as other vulnerable groups like refugees and asylum-seekers unfortunately are very often turned into scapegoats, and are exposed to racist and xenophobic attitudes in the host country.”
Numbers provided by Sylikiotis for Cyprus showed 180,000 total migrants, most of whom are EU citizens. Some 70,000 are from non-EU countries, of which 57,000 came here to work. Out of these, some 35,000 are household workers. “Not one job being done by a migrant has being taken from Cypriot, as some are suggesting.”
The Minister said that the role of western powers in Third World countries has made economic survival in those countries increasingly difficult, thereby encouraging mass migration to the richer western countries. “Both the European Union and the international community as a whole should therefore be more decisive in devising measures to support the migrants’ countries of origin”, he said.
“Only by addressing the root causes of the problem can we hope to find a way out of mass migration from third countries”, he added.
Sylikiotis said that the Cypriot government’s policy must be based on two axes: first of all, full participation in the EU process of formulating a coherent EU-wide migration policy and asylum system, with specific proposals that, for example, will not allow discussion on the issue to be limited to economic arguments relating to cheap labour; and secondly, contributing towards a “modern, coherent, multi-dimensional and holistic” migration policy for the island within the EU framework. He added that this approach must be based on respect for human rights and the decent treatment of the people involved.
The Minister said that the government is in the later stages of producing a national action plan for integrating migrants, covering 2010-12. He said that the plan, which should be ready in the coming weeks, has been worked on by a committee of experts, with input from the Ombudswoman’s Office and the relevant government departments and ministries.
Aristo Tsiartas, Acting Head of the Authority against Racism and Discrimination at the Ombudswoman’s Office said that a significant factor in the expression of racism is the fact that over the last ten years Cypriots have had difficulty in coming to terms with a sudden and massive surge in mainly economic migration, without any real past experience of migration from around the world.
