NICOSIA, Cyprus: The government of Cyprus has officially requested the European Union (EU) to reconsider the designation of safe areas within Syria where migrants can potentially be repatriated, as announced by the Cypriot Interior Ministry on Friday.
During the informal gathering of EU interior ministers held in Spain in July, Cyprus’ Interior Minister, Constantinos Ioannou, was the sole official to raise the crucial matter. To date, no other EU member state has taken a formal stance regarding the re-evaluation of safe zones, according to the Interior Ministry in Cyprus.
Cyprus has taken the initiative to propose this reassessment, emphasizing its geographic proximity to the Syrian region, making it a prominent destination for Syrian migrants seeking asylum.
Cyprus, a nation ethnically divided, with a population of nearly a million residing in the southern part, internationally recognized where asylum seekers arrive, is facing a considerable influx of migrants. Migrants currently constitute 6% of the population, significantly higher than the average in other EU member countries.
For the past 12 years, war-torn Syria has been designated as an unsafe country due to ongoing armed conflict and indiscriminate violence, posing a significant risk to the safety of its citizens. Consequently, Syrians have been eligible for international protection status, granting them the right to live and work in third countries.
Cyprus proposes that the EU conducts an initial review to assess whether conditions on the ground in Syria, or specific regions within the country, have sufficiently improved to allow for the safe repatriation of Syrians.
The practicalities and procedures for such repatriations would be determined at a later stage. One possibility suggested by the Cypriot Interior Ministry is to initiate repatriations for Syrians originating from the declared safe zones.
Out of the 7,369 migrants who applied for asylum in Cyprus in 2023 until the end of August, approximately 40% were of Syrian origin.
According to the European Union Agency for Asylum, only one of Syria’s 13 regions, Tartus, is deemed to have “no real risk” of indiscriminate violence to civilians. In four other regions, including Latakia, Damascus, Homs, and Quneitra, the level of indiscriminate violence is not considered to be “high.”
The United Nations refugee agency currently does not facilitate or promote the return of refugees to Syria. It emphasizes that refugees have the right to return to their homeland “at a time of their own choosing.” The reassessment of safe zones aims to ensure that, when the time is right, repatriation can be carried out in a secure and well-coordinated manner.
