THE GOVERNMENT has been paying benefits to fewer political refugees and has sped up the processing rate for asylum applications, Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis told the House finance committee yesterday.
Sylikiotis said that 1,300 political refugees were now receiving state benefits, a reduction of 300.
The state is obliged under EU law to provide help to political refugees who have not found employment in the same way they would help their own nationals.
Sylikiotis said that fewer than 900 political asylum seekers were now waiting to hear on their applications.
He said that 200 of those were in holding centres whose expenses are mostly funded by EU solidarity funds (85 per cent).
Sylikiotis said that 452 illegal migrants had entered the republic from the north with 300 of those requesting political asylum.
He said that there were now far fewer asylum seekers from the north with 900 requesting asylum last year, 1500 in 2009 and 2500 in 2008.
“Cyprus is no longer an attractive destination for illegal migrants as it has been called in the past,” Sylikiotis said.
“The influx of illegal migrants from the occupied areas has been greatly reduced and this shows that with the measures we have been taking we are able to handle this area in a much better way,” said Sylikiotis.
The issue of migration has been a sore point for the state and voices against immigration have been getting stronger as the economy grows weaker.
Cyprus’ failure to clearly differentiate between legal and illegal migration was also criticised by a 2010 survey carried out by Migration Policy Group’s Migration Integration Policy Index.
The survey of the migration policies of 31 countries showed Cyprus had the worst access and long-term integration into the labour market for migrants.
“Our aim is that political refugees enter the market in jobs where mostly foreigners are being hired,” Sylikiotis said yesterday.
Earlier in the month police confirmed that around 15 people – illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers – had embarked on a hunger strike in Lakatamia holding cells.
They were protesting being held for longer than six months after which period the law states they must either be released of deported.
