Over 1,500 failed asylum seekers deported so far this year

The situation at the Pournara reception centre for asylum seekers is extremely volatile, both for those staying at the facility and for the neighbouring communities, MPs heard on Tuesday.

The matter came up again at the House ad hoc committee on demographics, where officials gave some startling statistics.

Police said the Pournara facility, designed for a capacity for 400 people, now hosts around ten times that number – some 4,000.

The centre is located outside the village of Kokkinotrimitha with asylum seekers from 33 ethnicities and seven religions.

Each day, some 100 asylum seekers enter the areas under the control of the Republic; and each week around 70 are deported from Cyprus. To date this year, authorities have deported 1,645 people, the committee heard.

The Republic pays for the return travel of the deportees. For Indian nationals, in addition to paying their airline ticket, the government also gave each deportee €1,000.

MPs heard that identifying the nationality of the asylum seekers is problematic, as many destroy their travel documents.

In addition, medical examinations (of the jawbone) showed that around 60 per cent of those who declare themselves as minors, are in fact adults.

Meantime traffickers are paid US$4,000 to transport asylum seekers to Istanbul, and from there to the north of Cyprus. Trafficking in persons is a felony, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. So far in 2022, 10 cases have been filed in the courts, and five arrests of suspected traffickers made.

Officials of the asylum service told parliamentarians they are considering erecting a double fence around Pournara in a bid to stop people from leaving the facility at will.

Upgrade and expansion works on the facility will cost an estimated €20 million; the government has asked the EU to cover some of the cost.

Community leader of nearby Paliometocho Andreas Kyprianou asked whether the aim is to increase the facility’s capacity from 400 to 15,000. If that is the case, he added, the neighbouring communities would “rise up.”

Residents of Kokkinotrimithia said that the owner of a factory next to the Pournara centre has reported multiple break-ins by asylum seekers, captured on camera. But by the time police arrived on the scene (in the early morning hours) the individuals had fled.

Disy MP Charalambos Pazaros referred to problems also faced by residents of the old town in Nicosia, as well as in Emba, Paphos.

The government has promised to hire 300 special constables to monitor the Green Line – through which the vast majority of irregular migrants cross into the south.

Diko’s Zacharias Koulias spoke of “hybrid warfare” waged by Turkey at Cyprus’ expense – an operation to dilute the demographics in the south of the island.

“National security is in the red zone,” he remarked.

According to Koulias, the Cypriot taxpayer covers 80 per cent of the expenses for hosting asylum seekers, with Brussels contributing just 20 per cent.