Interior minister to focus on migration in Brussels trip

Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou will focus on the disproportionate migration pressures faced by Cyprus at the Home Affairs Council in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.

“The minister of the interior will put before the 27 the serious problems that Cyprus has been facing in recent years in relation to the prevention, deterrence and management of the clearly disproportionate immigration pressures we face,” a ministry statement said.

Considering that migratory flows reached an all-time high in 2022, exceeding all previous years and exhausting all response possibilities from the available services, Ioannou will call on the partners to move from a theoretical approach of solidarity to more practical solutions.

He will suggest the evaluation of the voluntary relocation mechanism, which has not been effective, and its replacement with a more effective and binding system, which will provide a substantial relief to the frontline member states, the statement added.

The minister will also reunderline the immediate need for a targeted action plan for the Eastern Mediterranean region, with an emphasis on Turkey’s role and responsibilities, while he will call for EU measures to limit drastically the systematic promotion of flows through the north.

He will also emphasise the need for EU action for the effective implementation of the existing readmission agreements, and the formation of new ones combining migration with the broader policy of economic support for third countries.

The interior minister will return to Cyprus on Friday afternoon.