17 May 2013
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is greatly concerned over deteriorating conditions of asylum seekers in Cyprus; offers to support the government and calls for accelerating actions on contingency planning
UNHCR is greatly concerned that the well-being of many asylum seekers in Cyprus is being endangered due to their deprivation of essential protection needs. “There has been a sharp increase in the number of such instances including the case of more than 100 men, women and children of Syrian origin who had remained for over two weeks without shelter in the streets of Nicosia at the doorsteps of the Ministry of Interior,” says Nasr Ishak, UNHCR Representative for Cyprus. We have examined those cases and conveyed to the competent Cypriot authorities our recommendations for corrective actions in accordance with the Cyprus refugee law.
We had no doubt that the serious economic crisis and the drastic measures that have followed were bound to have widespread impact on the society and affect a segment of the Cypriot population itself. Therefore, UNHCR has been proactively calling for solidarity with the Government and people of Cyprus, not just by words but also by deeds. However, our concern is that asylum seekers and refugees being among the most vulnerable people in Cyprus have been enormously affected to the extent of destitution. The need to preserve the human dignity of those innocent people is an international obligation and UNHCR in Cyprus has responded immediately from its own resources to requests for support from the Cypriot authorities. At the same time, Cyprus as an EU Member State who is experiencing serious difficulties with respect to its financial stability, is now entitled to receiving 95% of the cost of providing appropriate reception facilities for asylum seekers from EU Refugee Funds.
“But our efforts to support the Republic of Cyprus do not stop merely at providing humanitarian assistance to people of concern to UNHCR,” explains Ishak. We know that we must fully take into account the multiple challenges facing Cyprus and proceed in a constructive and solutions-oriented manner; in close consultation with government counterparts at various levels. For example, a delegation from UNHCR’s Europe Bureau in Brussels and its Headquarters in Geneva visited Nicosia last month to review the potential impact on Cyprus of the Syrian crisis. The delegation met at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Andreas Mavroyiannis and competent officials from the Ministry of Interior, the Asylum Service, the Crisis Management Department, Schengen and Consular Division, and the Civil Protection Department.
With the number of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries already exceeding 1.4 million and rapidly rising, UNHCR urged the government to accelerate its contingency planning efforts in order to ensure preparedness for possible increased arrivals of people fleeing Syria. UNHCR considers that those civilians fleeing from Syria require international protection and has called upon all states to ensure that their borders remain open to receive them and ensure that their human rights are respected. For his part, Mr. Mavroyiannis recalled that the Cypriot people are themselves the victims of violation of their human rights and assured UNHCR that the government remains committed to upholding its obligations but it also counted on real measures of solidarity with small and overtaxed countries like Cyprus.
