Most of the Republic’s illegal immigrants enter teh island through northern Cyprus, according to figures presented at a press conference on Monday.
In 2004 the report said there were 5,287 illegal immigrants of whom only seven came to the island from the coasts in the government controlled areas of the Republic. The rest were from the occupied areas.
From the 5,175 illegal immigrants in 2005, only 16 came from the coasts in the free areas while the remaining entered the island through the north, according to the report.
However, figures may be distorted by the fact that the Republic of Cpyrus counts as illegal all Turkish and other non-EU nationals, since they will have arrived via an internationally unrecognised port.
The government is unable to stop free movement of EU nationals throughout the island.
Regarding political asylum seekers, in 2004 when Cyprus joined the EU, the number reached 9,655 while in 2005 the number went down to 7,551, marking a 21% decrease.
The problem of political asylum seekers is being exacerbated by the illegal immigrants coming from the Turkish occupied areas since in 2004 a total of 2,728 persons who came to the island illegally from the north applied for asylum and a further 3,911 applied in 2005.
“Illegal immigration continues to be a phenomenon which is related to the occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus, and the numbers speak for themselves,” said Minister of Justice Doros Theodorou.
Another reason for the increase in the number of illegal immigrants, the Minister said, is because the occupation regime did not punish those arrested in February 2005 in the occupied areas.
Human trafficking concerns
“We are talking about organised human trafficking,” he said, noting that this “has evolved in Turkey and involves a number of situations and many countries of origin,” including Greek Cypriots, he added, noting that government representations have yielded results.
Stressing that there is no agreement between Cyprus and Turkey for the readmission of Turkish nationals arrested in the government controlled areas coming from the occupied areas, the Minister said this causes the Republic a number of problems.
“This is something which we will not tolerate anymore. We are demanding from the EU, and there are indications that the EU is responding, to impose on Turkey its obligations to combat the cartels and human trafficking and to make agreements to readmit its nationals,” the Minister stressed.
He also said that in 2006 Cyprus will exert all possible pressure and influence on the EU to make Turkey comply with EU decisions.
Theodorou called for the establishment of a European fund to handle illegal immigration and already the EU has set up a fund for northern Africa, adding that it will do the same for the Eastern Mediterranean.
“Therefore, in 2006 we will benefit from such a programme,” he added.
Police Chief Panagiotou said that the Police have made remarkable achievements on the issue of employing illegal immigrants, since in 2004 it arrested 234 employers and in 2005 a total of 362.
However, the police have also come under criticism for mishandling foreign nationals and deporting them without proper procedures.
The police reported a total of 149 cases of forged documents such as identity cards, passports or visas were discovered. Among the passports which were forged are French, British, Scandinavian and even Cypriot.
Theodorou said that if political measures are implemented, then there will be a marked decreased in the wave of illegal immigrants coming mostly from Turkey.
