New hires will see speedier examination of asylum applications

Faster processing times of asylum applications have received a boost with the recruitment of 25 additional examiners, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said on Monday.

“The recruitment of new staff is a key pillar in the effort to manage immigration with tangible results already being recorded,” the minister said.

In recent months, more than 1,800 applications are being examined per month compared to the 1,000 that were examined on average in 2022.

Faster processing times resulted in less benefits being given to failed asylum seekers and fewer of them working, the minister said, in addition to speeding up voluntary returns.

In addition, the speedy examination of asylum applications has acted as a deterrent to the arrival of new immigrants, Ioannou said.

Returns have increased by 50 per cent and simultaneously arrivals have decreased by 50 per cent, he said.

The new staff met the minister on Monday and will receive rapid training to assume their duties from the beginning of November.

The minister said the number of staff to examine requests has already doubled since he took the post in March, and it has now tripled. The last batch of people to examine requests was on April 27, and with the latest hires the total number has now reached 82.

The ministry expects to now have the capacity process around 2,300 new applications per month, while, at the moment, applications have dropped to around 600-700. The minister said that, with the added staff, it would be possible to tackle the 30,000 outstanding applications.

“We have managed to reduce the examination time [down to] one to three months, which is a disincentive for someone to come to Cyprus,” the minister said, explaining that the majority of applicants are rejected.

Asked for data on the flows of migrant arrivals, he said final figures are still awaited for September, however, figures from April to the end of August show applications for political asylum fell from 12,000 down to 5,800 in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, returns for the period increased from 3,200 to 4,800.

Asked if there was any update on last’s week’s information about the arrival of large numbers of Syrian refugees from Lebanon and the contacts made there, the minister stated that he was in ongoing communication with the Lebanese authorities over the matter.

“At the moment we have not had any development, nor arrival of new boats. This is good and we await Lebanon’s response to the five points I had put in my letter for cooperation and support for [that] country, in terms of increasing their ability to monitor the seas,” the minister stated.