The north’s ‘government’ is to put forward a new law which would allow for undocumented migrants arriving there a pathway to obtain work permits, ‘interior minister’ Dursun Oguz said on Thursday night.

Speaking to Kibris TV, he explained that the law he is putting forward will allow any undocumented migrant allowing the north to register and be incorporated into the north’s system if they can find a job within 45 days of their arrival.

“If people in the TRNC are irregular migrants, they will register within 45 days, enter the workforce, and be registered, and thus become legal, provided they can find an employer,” he said.

He explained that employers in the north had been concerned about a lack of available workforce, and that the law he is to put forward will allow them to take advantage of the undocumented population which is already present in the north rather than find people from overseas to work in the north.

“Our government saw this demand positively and is working within this framework,” he said.

He added that the law has been approved by the north’s cabinet, and that it will now be sent to the relevant ‘parliamentary’ committee.

The planned law change comes as a growing number of asylum seekers have once again sought to enter the Republic of Cyprus via the north in recent weeks.

At present, a total of 27 people are stranded in the buffer zone, having been refused access to asylum applications by the Republic’s government.

The north has no process by which people arriving there can seek asylum, and as such, anyone arriving there without the requisite papers at present is typically considered to be an “illegal immigrant”, arrested, and deported, regardless of the status of their home country.

However, while the law put forward by Oguz does not change that fact, it does create a window by which undocumented migrants arriving in the north can now avoid deportation.