Cyprus beyond limit of migrant capacity, needs EU help

Cyprus has been stretched beyond its limits in accommodating asylum seekers and migrants and needs support from its European Union partners, a government official said on Friday, reported Reuters.

Previously overlooked as a migratory route, the eastern Mediterranean island has seen an increase in irregular arrivals over the past four years. On Thursday, a European human rights watchdog asked Cyprus to investigate reports of sometimes violent attempts to drive away migrants at sea, a practice that is internationally banned. Nicosia has denied the accusations.

"Cyprus is a country which is at the receiving end of the biggest inflows as a percentage of its population, with the risk of demographic changes," deputy government spokesman Viktor Papadopoulos told a news briefing.

"The capability of the Republic of Cyprus in accommodating these people has been exhausted."

Authorities frequently maintain that asylum seekers have reached 4 percent of Cyprus's overall population of around 850,000 in areas controlled by the internationally recognised government, a figure rights groups say is grossly exaggerated.

They say Cyprus might be quoting accumulated figures of two decades, since it opened up asylum processes in 2002. It also distorts a situation where persons may have integrated into society, left the island, or died, they say.

"It is not correct," said Corina Demetriou, an expert in human rights. "This (4 percent) is a very gross inflation of the number."

Based on data of the island's asylum service, Cyprus – a country half the size of Wales – received 7,094 asylum applications in 2020, falling almost by half compared to 2019.

Many arrive through a porous "green line" – the legacy of a 1974 ceasefire after a Turkish invasion following a brief Greek-backed coup – which bisects the island into a Turkish Cypriot north and internationally recognised Greek Cypriot south.

The Cypriot government has taken an increasingly hard line on asylum seekers. When razor wire went up at one blind spot along the green line earlier this month, one official said Cyprus had a culture and security that needed to be safeguarded.

The same administration was until last November offering rich foreigners citizenship in return for a 2-million-euro investment. It was forced to pull the programme following disclosures that it was open to abuse.

Source: MEM

Fears Europe’s third wave will spread to UK within weeks

A surge in coronavirus cases across Europe is threatening a new wave in the UK and makes holidays abroad increasingly unlikely, government scientists fear. Senior figures in Whitehall are becoming extremely concerned by an increase in infections that is forcing some countries, including France and Poland, back into lockdowns. They fear a rise in cases in Britain within weeks with some calling for tougher travel restrictions, according to The Times. A government source told newspaper that the rise in Europe was being watched closely, adding: ‘It’s a fact that when waves one and two hit Europe they hit us afterwards.’ The threat of a third wave means European holidays in May, and possibly in the summer, look doubtful. Twenty countries in the European Union have now reported an increase in the rate of positive tests and 15 have said hospital or intensive care admissions have increased, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The rise comes as countries continue to struggle with the vaccine rollout, which has been hampered by supply problems and skepticism over the AstraZeneca/Oxford jab. Despite the UK soaring ahead with nearly half a million people vaccinated, scientists say we’re ‘not out of the woods’. Advisors are wary of outbreaks of the South African variant in some European countries.

Although this has been kept at bay in the UK by mass testing, a source told the Daily Telegraph the country shouldn’t ‘kid ourselves that you can stop these things from getting here’. A government scientist also told the newspaper: ‘It does suggest we should be cautious, and although we’ve really come down quite steeply and things look pretty good in terms of hospitalisations and deaths, it would be wrong to assume we’re out of the woods.’ It is not clear why the UK often follows Europe when there is a surge in infections. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) has urged the government to take a cautious approach, but it has not called for a change to Boris Johnson’s roadmap out of lockdown. Infections levels in the UK are still declining, but the decrease has slowed slightly following the first step out of lockdown, which saw schools reopen on March 8. Boris Johnson this week pledged to stick to his roadmap, which will see all restrictions end on June 21, despite a month-long delay to the under 50s receiving the jab. But the Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford was less optimistic, saying he was ‘concerned’ to see reports of a third wave of coronavirus hitting France and warning it is ‘very likely’ to hit Wales. ‘The question is not whether it will happen – it’s how it will happen and how we will deal with it,’ he said. MORE: CORONAVIRUS Billionaire tax exiles and Saudi royals have claimed millions in furlough Looking for an adventure this summer? We've got just the thing - and it's Covid-safe Our social batteries have lost charge in the pandemic - how do we restore them? In Europe, the French government announced that new lockdown restrictions would be imposed on Paris from midnight on Friday due to an increase in cases. Prime Minister Jean Castex said France was facing a ‘third wave’ of the pandemic, adding the new measures will last for four weeks. Poland begins a new three-week lockdown on Saturday, with shops, hotels, cultural and sporting facilities closed, while other countries including Italy and Spain have opted for curfews in a bid to reduce the rate of transmission. Meanwhile, Germany’s head of public health declared on Friday that the country was ‘now at the beginning of a third wave’ while Chancellor Angela Merkel said she may need to apply an “emergency break’ on relaxing restrictions amid a rise in infections. Poland begins a new three-week lockdown on Saturday, with shops, hotels, cultural and sporting facilities closed, while other countries including Italy and Spain have opted for curfews in a bid to reduce the rate of transmission. Professor Neil Ferguson, who spurred the UK’s decision to go into lockdown last March, warned that a ‘significant fraction’ of European cases were likely to be of the South African variant, which some fear is more resistant to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.

A spokesman for Boris Johnson said the UK had ‘strong measures’ at the border when asked whether the Government was concerned about rising Covid rates in France and other European countries. Asked about Prof Ferguson’s remarks, the spokesperson said: ‘What I would say in relation to those specific comments, we already have strong measures in place at the border as you will be aware. ‘It is currently illegal to go on holiday and anyone arriving in England has to self-isolate, take two mandatory PCR tests on day two and day eight of their 10-day isolation period, and have a negative test before travel as well. ‘Modelling is showing that a combination of specific policy options such as pre-departure testing and isolation are effective measures for mitigating the public health risk.’ Pressed on whether some EU countries could be placed on the ‘red list’, meaning mandatory isolation in a hotel upon arrival in England, the No 10 spokesman replied: ‘I would point you back to the wide variety of strong measures that we have in place at the border.”We have them in place and believe them to be strong and robust measures.’

metro.co.uk

Priti Patel "in talks with several countries" over migrant deportation plan

Asylum seekers who illegally cross the Channel to reach Britain may be sent abroad for processing under new plans being considered by the Home Secretary who is in talks with “several non-EU countries” about taking migrants “in return for money”, the Daily Mail reports. The strategy, which would require law changes, is part of Pritii Patel’s push to take "a much tougher stance on unauthorised migration" and “stop people smugglers”, the paper continues.

Turkey is among among the potential third countries to which migrants could be sent to await either being “returned to their home nation or the safe country they arrived from”.

The Times says that the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar and the Isle of Man, a Crown dependency, have also “been discussed by officials” as potential options. “Other islands off the British coast, possibly in Scotland”, are “in the mix” too, the paper continues.

Ministers have scrapped proposals leaked to the press last year to send migrants to Ascension Island and St Helena in the south Atlantic. But Patel is now reportedly eyeing “countries in north Africa, such as Morocco”, and also “Denmark, which has a hard-line policy towards asylum seekers”.

On the flip side, government insiders are claiming that Patel is also planning new legal routes to the UK for migrants fleeing war zones. The Times says that “persecuted minorities such as Coptic Christians under threat in Egypt and Iraq” may be offered safe passage as well.

Australia-style system

Patel’s plan is thought to have drawn inspiration from Australia’s “Operation Sovereign Borders”, which bans “refugees who arrive by sea” from “ever settling in Australia - without exception”, Politico reports.

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