Massive surge in asylum application cases against Cyprus

An increase of 472 per cent in cases against the state for asylum applications was recorded from 2020 to 2023, the legal service announced on Friday.

However, there was a nine per cent decrease according to the legal service announcement for 2022.

Commenting on 2023, the legal service stated that a total of 76.53 per cent of appeals filed before the court were filed by asylum seekers from safe countries.

According to the statement, “The contribution of the legal service is essential to manage the large number of cases filed against the Republic in the courts by the increased migratory flows to the Republic.”

As explained, one of the responsibilities of the legal service is, through the appeals subsection of the Administrative Court of International Protection, to represent and defend the administration (interior ministry, asylum service, Civil Registry and Migration Department) before all competent state courts in appeals against the Republic filed by foreigners and asylum seekers.

The conclusions of the analysis indicate that for 2023, the subsection of the administrative court handled a total of 10,001 new cases before the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the Administrative Court and the Administrative Tribunal for International Protection dealt with the cases.

Furthermore, it is noted that 8,377 new cases concerning asylum seekers were filed before the Administrative Court for International Protection and 1,230 new appeals concerning foreigners were received before the Administrative Court.

It is added that in 2023, 9,818 cases were processed before the Administrative Court for International Protection, of which only 45 cases were successful, accounting for 0.46 per cent.

At the same time, there was a 472 per cent increase in newly registered appeals before the Administrative Court of International Protection from 2020 to 2023, while from 2022 to 2023, there was a 9 percent decrease in newly registered appeals.

The conclusions record that 76.53 per cent of the appeals filed before the courts concern applicants from safe countries and add that applicants from safe countries decreased by 8.14 per cent compared to 2022, while applicants from non-safe countries increased by 7.09 per cent.

The service also noted that appeals concerning foreigners before the Administrative Court amounted to 65.25 per cent of all appeals received for 2023 with 71 per cent of the Administrative Court decisions concerning foreigners being in favour of the Republic, while 29 per cent were against the Republic.