By Angelos Anastasiou
THE UK has no plans to set up a temporary holding centre for migrants seeking asylum in the country in the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus, a spokesperson has told the Cyprus Mail, while the Cyprus government says it would not consent.
The comments came in response to a proposal made by journalist and New Statesman blogger Martin Plaut.
In a blog post on the British politics magazine’s website, Plaut suggests that perhaps the most efficient way to tackle the simmering crisis at Calais, where migrants from most of the world’s most troubled areas descend on the small French village with a view to crossing into the UK, could be resolved by setting up a large-scale reception centre on “British territory – not the UK itself, but the British Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus”.
The British government denied having entertained such thoughts, and reiterated the argument that the immigration problem cannot be solved by employing reactive solutions – however radical – in managing the problem, but rather by strengthening and ensuring prevention.
“This is not government policy,” SBA spokeswoman Connie Pierce told the Cyprus Mail regarding Plaut’s proposal.
“The UK is working with EU and international partners to tackle the problem at its roots by cracking down on the organised crime gangs smuggling people into Europe and returning illegal migrants, and working with source and transit countries to stop people making this perilous journey in the first place.”
The Cyprus government also seems to think this isn’t a real possibility, but for an entirely different set of reasons.
“I don’t see this happening,” a foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
“I don’t think the UK would want to do that, and I don’t think the Cyprus government would consent, even if we were asked. The bases are there to promote and facilitate the security of the United Kingdom – this aim could hardly be furthered by gathering every asylum-seeker in one spot.”
“On the other hand, it’s likely that under such a scenario, the problem would spill over into Cyprus. We would end up shouldering the UK’s immigration problem, at least in part.”
Indeed, the 1960 Treaty of Establishment, co-signed by the United Kingdom, Turkey, Greece, and the Republic of Cyprus, which founded the Sovereign Base Areas, clearly lays out security-related activities, rights, and obligations of the counterparts, and explicitly prohibits “any activity inconsistent with the spirit of this Treaty”.
Acknowledging the difficulties, of which he singled out the need to work out the diplomatic details with the government of Cyprus, Plaut noted that proper infrastructure – and perhaps United Nations oversight – should be set up before such a grand vision can materialise.
But even then, unintended consequences are likely to come up. The story of Iraqi migrants who landed at SBA-controlled Akrotiri, Limassol, in 1998 while on the way to Italy and remain there to date, with the risk of deportation to their ISIS-controlled village constantly dangling over their heads, is telling. Their applications for refugee status were denied (at least in part because the UK government fears setting such a precedent would open the floodgates for many more to see the Bases as a fast-track lane to the UK), they don’t want to be here but won’t leave for anywhere but the UK, and no other country will have them. It’s a near-perfect catch-22, and this kind of story may conceivably become the norm, rather than the odd exception, under such a new regime.
Regardless, Plaut argued, such an arrangement would only be temporary, and besides, it should be easy enough for British diplomats to work out with a feasible accommodation with the local authorities.
“What is the Foreign Office for if it cannot negotiate its way around this kind of hurdle?”, the author asked.
