Cypriot Minister stresses importance of Common European Asylum System

Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said that the adoption by the EU of a common asylum system will help small member states, such as Cyprus, which receive strong immigration pressure.

In statements at Larnaka International Airport, after he returned from Brussels, the Minister described the Justice and Home Affairs Council which he attended as important.

During the Council, Sylikiotis said the Ministers approved the Stockholm Programme that deals with home affairs issues and justice and is an EU programme which will cover the next five years and it will be ratified by the EU leaders on December 10 during the EU Council.

He also said that they examined the Common European Asylum System and how the system will progress until 2012, explaining that it is important for the EU to maintain such a system because it will help small EU states such as Cyprus because “we are in the front line and are receiving strong pressure, therefore there should be a balanced allocation of the problems”.

Cyprus is under strong immigration pressure, especially from the country’s northern Turkish occupied areas where most illegal immigrants find themselves, trying to cross into the southern government controlled part of the country.