Cyprus to demand EU relocates ‘significant number’ of island’s asylum seekers
The Cyprus Mail has reported that:
Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides is sending a formal letter to the EU and Commission counterparts asking that a significant number of refugees under asylum protection in Cyprus be relocated to other member states, it emerged on Sunday.
In statements in Dromolaxia, Petrides was asked about the increasing inflow of asylum seekers coming through the north. “This is indeed a unique anomaly due to the occupation. We are a country in the European Union that cannot control our northern borders and Frontex cannot patrol as in other countries so we cannot take these measures taken by other countries,” he said.
“In the absence of any permanent solution at a European level, namely the Dublin Regulation, which provides for temporary and voluntary arrangements, and because it seems that a permanent solution is not going forward, we are officially demanding a more substantial redistribution of people.”
Petrides said that next week an official letter would be sent by Cyprus, “from me to all my counterparts but also to the European Commission” to request the relocation of a significant number of people who are protected in Cyprus,” he added.
The aim, Petrides said is to stop at least to some degree the disproportionate burden on Cyprus.
“With the official response from these countries in writing, we will see to what extent this solidarity that we are seeking and that the European Union itself says is at its core, exists, Petrides said.
Asked to comment on criticisms that Cyprus is not properly managing the large influx of migrants, the minister said the management that has been carried out by the Republic was one that has prevented a humanitarian crisis in EU countries that do not have the minimum number Cyprus.
“So this criticism is unfair because of the overwhelming burden when you have to process a thousand applications a year means there will be delays,” he added.
He said Cyprus was constantly improving infrastructure and facilities but in any country the local labour market and economy as a whole can only absorb a certain number of people and “when that number is far exceeded then the system, whether it is called an asylum system or a welfare system, cannot cope sufficiently and quickly.”
He repeated that the criticism is unfair and suggested the media ask Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou how much the welfare system has been burdened by the management of so many thousands of extra people.
Petrides announced on Wednesday that his ministry would create one or two more refugee reception centres catering for 1,000 persons to respond to the increased migration flow.
He said there were 15,000 asylum seekers and that another 15,000 had been granted subsidiary protection status.
One or two more reception centres catering for a total of 1,000 people would be needed, he said.
The minister reiterated however that Cyprus could not host 30 to 40 reception centres and end up another “depository of souls”.
COMMENT
I believe the true consequences of joining the EU are only now being felt, since Italy closed its ports to migrants and made the rescuing of migrants a criminal offence, many of them are actually being sneaked in to Cyprus. Along with many others who are being pushed out of Italy, because they have had enough.
Over the last 2/3 years the numbers have swelled exponentially, but it has been a quiet, even distribution that many people have not noticed, but block after block of apartments in the major towns are being set aside for migrants, as the Landlords/Agents receive €150.00 per month for each one that they squeeze in, turning many blocks in to ghettos and making the lives of the residents a misery.
This situation has gotten totally out of control, but it has been conducted by stealth and most people are only now beginning to notice that Cyprus has been FLOODED! However, the numbers are already so great that any change in public opinion will lead to unrest. Before feeling that the appropriate thing to say is that we should take them in, then consider this, the numbers arriving have been increasing constantly, with a massive jump in June, there are millions more where they came from, how many can we take?
Ironically, the government is looking to the EU to solve this, it is in fact the EU that has created this, whilst simultaneously implementing laws, making it harder and harder to object. It is sad that our own government has to beg, cap in hand for the EU to respect our own sovereignty that we handed to them on a plate.
Italy embraces Fascism
The conversation reports:
It didn’t matter where they were: in front of a café, a tobacconist, or the train station. It didn’t seem to matter who they were: men or women, Italian citizens, “regular” immigrants or asylum seekers. So long as they were black. A shooting rampage against African migrants in the town of Macerata, in central Italy on February 2, unveiled the extent to which the debate about migration in Italy is shaped by fascist forces and racist ideas.
By the end of the rampage, six people had been shot, one woman and five men. One is in a regional hospital with a chest injury, the others suffered lesser injuries and are in stable conditions. A 28-year-old man called Luca Traini, arrested at the scene draped in an Italian flag, was charged with an attempted racially-aggravated massacre. A copy of Mein Kampf and books on fascism in Italy were reportedly found at his flat. In 2017, Traini stood as a candidate for the far right Lega Nord at a local election, albeit scoring zero votes.
The attack came soon after the macabre death of Pamela Mastropietro, whose dismembered body was found in two suitcases in late January, dumped along the road near Macerata. A Nigerian man called Innocent Oseghale residing in Italy with an expired permesso di soggiorno (or permit of stay) was arrested the day after, accused of killing her.
Extra-ordinary lives
I never met Gideon Atzeke, Jennifer Otioto or any of the other victims of the attack, and hardly anyone has mentioned who they were. But I did meet many asylum seekers in Macerata in summer 2017 during my research on the Italian government’s reception system for asylum seekers. And even then, the everyday and institutional racism confronting them seemed to be their main preoccupation.
Talking to them on the phone in the days since the attack I’ve been struck by the fatalist nature with which they processed the events. A sign, perhaps, of their extraordinary lives, and of their ordinary fears, aspirations, and claims for a secure and decent life, all of which which are constantly devalued and obscured by the migration debate.
Some Nigerians blamed the accusations against Oshigale for putting “all Nigerians in a bad light”. Others evoked the violent and racist abuse they faced in Libya, drawing explicit parallels between their treatments in the two countries. Unfortunately, all seemed to agree that it was best for them to stay put in the hotels and houses where they are hosted, as they wait for their asylum claim to be processed.
I strongly encouraged them not to do so, and to join the various protests and marches that have already taken place or that are planned.
Ordinary racism
The attempted massacre appears to epitomise how fascist groups and ideas have been mainstreamed and glamorised in Italy, particularly in the run-up to elections on March 4.
After his arrest, Traini was heralded as a patriot by some on social media. Forza Nuova, the party founded by the far right politician Roberto Fiore, expressed full support for Traini and offered to pay his legal expenses.
Other political parties distanced themselves from his alleged actions. Yet they still managed to shift attention away from the political context of the rampage.
Casapound, a far right group, condemned the attack, and denied reports of Traini’s affiliation with them. Roberto Salvini, leader of the Lega Nord, tried to minimise Traini’s past candidature for his party, and linked the event to the “social confrontation” that is brought about by “uncontrolled migration”.
Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister and leader of Forza Italia, defined immigration as a “social bomb about to explode” and pledged to deport up to 600,000 irregular migrants. Other right wing parties, such as Fratelli d’Italia, used the events to emphasise their belief that Italy faces a security emergency caused by migration, which needs a strong response from the state.
Marco Minniti, Italy’s minister of the interior, a member of the Partito Democratico, appealed for unity. He tried to placate the situation by insisting that the shootings were unorganised and carried out by a loose cannon. The Five Star Movement, the largest party in Italy according to polls, insisted that it was the responsibility of political parties to maintain “silence” about the attack.
As the migrant support group Coordinamento Migranti asserted, underlying these responses lies a growing racism which pervades Italian politics and which frames migration as a threat to Italians, and seeks to legitimise military and security solutions.
I believe this was an act of terrorism and that it wasn’t an isolated event, but the latest episode of a series of fascist aggressions aimed at intimidating immigrants and those who support them. A strong mobilisation is required against this drift.
COMMENT
There is no doubt that most of Europe has moved to the right at an alarming rate. It is not possible to subjegate so many people and make them second class citizens in their own homeland. The indigenous people of Europe have been wrapped up in knots by political correctness, which is designed to gag them and prevent objection to the never ending torrent of migrants that are not just threatening the very identity of Europe, but is increasingly a threat to the Europeans as a whole.
This will not end well, as Europe moves further to the right, this serves as a barometer that the people of Europe are themselves becoming increasing drawn to resisting the narrative of the political classes. There is a great risk that the resistance will come from within, as Europe hurtles towards a political implosion not seen since the 1930s. On that note, why does it feel that we are fast approaching a re-run of 1933?
The EU an empire in decay
Most Europeans believe that the European Union will collapse within 20 years, raising the prospect of new conflicts and wars on the continent. This is the conclusion of the Berlin-based think-tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations, having carried out polls in 14 EU member states. Younger voters, aged 18 to 34, were especially worried about the prospect of war between current EU countries.
The belief that the EU will disintegrate within two decades is an entirely rational one. The union bears many of the hallmarks of an empire in decay: it has over-extended its borders; it is attracting more outsiders than it desires or can accommodate; it has too many leaders; it has emerging nativist movements; and its poor are growing ever-more angry and resentful towards the political establishment.
However, the second belief – that war between former nations will ensue – is unfounded. There is no appetite among EU member states for another European conflict, and no signs of animosity between nation states on the continent, as there clearly were prior to 1914 and 1939. The only hostility evident today is directed against the EU and Germany’s leadership itself.
The First World War was on the cards ever since 1871, with the unification of Germany, a country that was soon going to dominate the continent as France continued its long decline.
Ever since the Napoleonic wars, Britain had made it policy that no single nation should ever again dominate Europe, and by the 1900s Britain and Germany were in an open naval arms race. There was also by then a general desire for war among the populaces, as personified by the cult of Nietzsche and, as Robert Wohl wrote in The Generation of 1914 (1980), the belief that European culture was decadent and needed ‘purification’.
The signs were even more obvious in the 1930s, with Nazi Germany’s re-occupation of the Ruhr, the re-militarisation of the Rhineland, and then the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland. By 1936, Orwell observed, it was clear to most that a forthcoming war was inevitable.
There are no comparable signs today. If anything, the case is the opposite. The defining aspect of Europe’s nationalist and populist movements is not that they represent growing animosity between nations, but rather that they embody a pan-European alliance among like-minded nationalists. Last Saturday, Matteo Salvini, the Italian populist deputy prime minister, held a rally in Milan attended by leading members of 10 different parties across the continent. One by one they took to the stage to denounce immigration and to denounce Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and the French president Emmanuel Macron as ‘destroyers of Europe’.
The real prospect of war on the continent comes not with the disintegration of the EU, but with its continued existence. There may not be any tangible appetite among other EU members for seceding from the Union, but there is clearly something wrong with the model. If it is to survive it will have to become more federated or decentralised or two-tier, otherwise the likes of Salvini or Hungary’s Viktor Orbán will flourish and multiply. But the EU’s ideological leaders are so wedded to ever-closer union that it’s hard to see this happening.
The EU made it as difficult as possible for the UK to leave, with the view of setting an example to other members. Any future member that wants to leave, when the decadent and decrepit Union has become more reactionary, centralised and oppressive, and its members even more discontent, may ultimately have to take stronger measures. Remember Yugoslavia.
Most Europeans believe the EU could fall apart within the next two decades, according to a new study.
Research published this week showed that levels of support for membership of the European Union are high – but so is pessimism about the future of the bloc. The survey, conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and YouGov, had more than 60,000 respondents across 14 EU member states.
It found that in every member state except Spain, the majority of voters believe the EU will fall apart within the next 10 to 20 years.
In France, 58% of respondents said it was realistic that the bloc would collapse within two decades, with 57% of Italian and Polish voters agreeing to that. Even in Spain, 40% of respondents said it was a realistic possibility that the EU could fall apart. The data showed that most Europeans saw the collapse of the single market as the biggest loss should the EU break down, followed by free travel across borders and the freedom to live and work in other countries.
A European war?
Significant proportions of people surveyed also said a war between EU countries was a realistic possibility over the next decade. Austrians were most likely to believe a European war was possible, with 38% saying it could happen within 10 years, followed by 35% of French respondents and 31% of Romanians. The belief was also particularly strong among younger people. In Austria and Romania, half of those aged between 18 and 24 believed a war between EU members was possible, while 46% of the youngest respondents in France agreed.
According to the report, there was a greater tendency to hold this belief among supporters of far-right parties, particularly Rassemblement National in France, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, Jobbik in Hungary, and Golden Dawn in Greece. However, many who supported mainstream parties also thought a European war was possible within 10 years, the study found.
Economic split
Across all the countries included in the survey, a minority of voters said they believed young people had more economic opportunities than older generations.
There was also a widespread insecurity among respondents that they were doing less well financially than people living in other EU nations. In Greece, more than 70% of people felt they had fewer economic opportunities than people in other European countries, while just over half of respondents in Romania, Spain and Italy believed they had an economic disadvantage.
Respondents in Denmark and Sweden were the least likely to hold the same views.
Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party set to storm EU elections with shock win
Latest reports indicate that the new Brexit Party, led by Nigel Farage, is on course to cause a political earthquake at next month’s EU Parliament elections, with a new survey showing his anti-EU group ahead of both Labour and the Tories. YouGov, one of Britain’s main polling companies, has Farage’s Brexit Party at 27 percent, five points ahead of Labour and well ahead of PM Theresa May’s Conservatives at 15 percent, with just a few weeks to go until elections on May 23.
The newly-formed party has surged 12 percent in less than a week, with Farage’s former party, UKIP, suffering the most from the pro-Brexit group’s incarnation, plunging seven percent over the same period.
The pro-EU, second referendum advocates, Change UK – The Independent Group, headed by former Tory Heidi Allen, are trailing in the Brexit Party’s wake, polling at a lowly six percent.
Topping the EU election polls is familiar territory for Farage, having led UKIP to victory in 2014, securing 26.6 percent of the vote. His former party nosedived in the YouGov survey under the leadership of Gerard Batten. Farage launched his new party on Friday, claiming they would mirror UKIP on policies, but when it came to their members and candidates up for election, there would be no far-right faction, which has dogged his former party.
One of those candidates standing for election will be Annunziata Rees-Mogg, the sister of Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg. She has twice stood to be a Conservative MP, but has now left after 35 years to join Farage’s army of Brexiteers.
COMMENT
There was a referendum, there was a result and the democratic process was seen to have been done, only it was not. The political classes had NO INTENTION of allowing the will of the people to be fulfilled. After all, the British public were lied to back in 1975, something that was later admitted. NOBODY voted for a superstate, NOBODY voted for our country to be dictated to by Brussels.
In the meantime, the public have been played by politicians, who have terrified them that we will be in some sort of economical wilderness if we leave without a deal. We do not need a deal, we are the UK, WE ARE the deal!
Brexit day, but no Brexit
Thirty-one migrants picked up in Kato Pyrgos
The Cyprus mail reported: A group of 31 Syrian migrants were picked up near Kato Pyrgos late Monday. Despite the bad weather, their vessel had docked in occupied Limnitis from where the passengers were taken to Pyrgos. Among the Syrians on the boat were a family with two young children aged 5 and 6 and 27 men. The migrants were taken to the Polis Chrysochous police station. Later in the day they are expected to be taken to the reception centre at Kokkinothrimithia in Nicosia.
OPINION
Here we are repeating ourselves again, but I believe that many people do not realise the gravity of what is going on. Italy has turned on their immigrants, which is understandable considering they do nothing but make demands and show nothing but contempt for the countries that take them in. Most of these are now being dumped in Cyprus instead, the numbers have grown exponentially over the last year or two and here we are constantly saying what we think we should be seen to say.
The reality is, that they are being quietly dumped in Cyprus, they are coached on how to behave, what to do and what to say, so they can quietly slip under the radar until they are granted asylum and then they can move on to mainland Europe, where they are counted as ‘European migration’
THIS IS ALL PART OF AN AGENDA!
There are SIX BILLION people in the world, living in abject poverty, how many can we take? Every time we take one in, we encourage a hundred more to make their way here, but that does not matter to the left wing white shaming Snowflakes, who have nothing but contempt for everything that Europe stands for.
We SHOULD NOT take these people in, NONE OF THEM, migrations within Europe is one thing, but this is an invasion and it is not an accident.
Sadly this situation is actually being created and we should direct our attention to those who are causing this. Fortunately, our leaders here in Cyprus are not warmongers, they are just corrupt thieves!
We need to see through the narrative, Europe is under attack, we are under attack, along with everything we stand for. People need to stop saying what they think they should be seen to say, it’s time to call a spade a spade!
MPs seek say on ‘golden visas’
The Cyprus Mail reported………
A LEGISLATIVE proposal is to be tabled to the House plenum in January aiming to give parliament a say in the criteria governing the issuing of passports to foreign nationals under the citizenship-by-investment scheme. The bill, authored by the Greens, is expected to go before the plenary session on January 11, the first session following the Christmas recess.
It stipulates that the criteria for these naturalisations need to be submitted by the government to parliament, before they are published in the government gazette. Currently, the terms and conditions for the citizenship-by-investment programme are determined by the cabinet, with no further scrutiny.
In prior discussions in parliament, the interior ministry said it was opposed to the Greens’ bill, arguing that it would deprive the government of the flexibility in periodically updating or revising the naturalisation scheme. Ruling Disy said also they are against the provisions of the bill, while main opposition Akel are in favour.
The Greens tabled the proposal after another bill they had submitted – mandating the publishing of the names of foreign investors granted passports – failed to muster support in committee. In October, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development placed Cyprus’ so-called ‘golden passport’ programme on a blacklist of schemes identified as posing a threat to international efforts to combat tax evasion.
My opinion
Is this what it has come to? We sold our soul to the EU and now we are prostituting our land for profit, selling off land that was for the main part owned by Cypriots in the past, much of which was placed in the name of the Church for tax reasons under the Ottomans, but was subsequently kept by the church and now, in partnership with corrupt developers, it is being sold off to people who do not have nexus with Cyprus, people who do not care, people who are only interested in gaining a foothold in Europe.
This is yet another shameful scandal for Cyprus, this administration (and those that preceded it) have NO IDEA about implementing effective and unifying Nation building policies, no….they only care about profit and pulling the ladder up, but meanwhile, hardworking Cypriots struggle with pitiful salaries and overpriced property prices created by a bubble that has no logical basis, no form foundations and one that will surely burst, taking down innocent people with it, but the instigators will not suffer, just as the instigators of the crisis that resulted in the THEFT of innocent people’s bank deposits did not affect them.
I feel that this ‘Golden Visa’ policy’ will not end well. Cyprus is a small island and we cannot keep selling off to non-Cypriots, that is not racist, that is not divisive, it is based on a desire to avoid being overrun and pushed out.
What I find to be the greatest tragedy, on the note of Nation building is that there is not and never has been any inclusive policy to unite Cypriots, to make it easier for them to move to Cyprus, live in Cyprus and most importantly offer their children a state English speaking school. In fact, English was actually REMOVED as an official language back in the 80s, making it even harder for Cypriots who are living outside of Cyprus to return.
What saddens me the most, is that this administration is willing to sell its soul to people who have no interest in Cyprus whatsoever, yet they will do NOTHING to encourage a unified Cypriot Demography. If this continues, Cyprus as we know it will cease to exist and one day, those of us who remain will wake up strangers in our own land.
Scared of Brexit? Don’t be!
Are you falling for the the bullshit that we are being spun by the political classes? We were lied to when our nation was dragged in the ‘Common Market’ and over 3 or 4 decades our country has been become wrapped up in so much red tape and political dishonesty it does not bare thinking about.
We have a youth who have been convinced that we will be isolated in some sort of poverty trap when we leave (if they let us) but in fact, we are in a different world to the one that gave up when we sold our soul to the EU. There is now a world trade agreement, we do not actually need trade agreements with Europe, they are already in place, but they are being used to scaremonger innocent people. We are worth more to the EU than they are to us….let us not forget that!
After a year of political high drama and turbulence, and given the seeming parliamentary impasse over the Prime Minister’s deal, there are massive anxieties about the consequences of leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement in place. Will it plunge us into an economic depression as some doom-mongers predict? Will prices rocket and essential goods be in short supply? Will there be riots on the streets as the ugly new social divisions opened up by Brexit play out?
I don’t doubt for one moment these concerns are wholly understandable and we are right to focus on them. But we should also count our blessings. We are not the only country experiencing turmoil — and for many of our neighbours it is far worse. Around Europe, many leaders are spending Christmas contemplating chaos and confusion politically, and widespread public dissatisfaction, growing unrest and even violence. For some, economic winter is already descending.
The level of corruption that has engulfed the EU is beyond imagination, but what are we to expect from an administration that does not have accountability? What are we to expect from a club that makes decisions in private, one that punishes it’s members by making them forfeit their pension if they criticise the EU? This ‘club’ is rotten to the core.
We have seen this club create debt throughout Europe and then force the citizens who were INNOCENT to pay the price. The UK will have absolutely no commercial losses by leaving, despite the scaremongering, but we may just be saving ourselves from the downward vortex that is engulfing the EU, one that will not end well.
There is only one thing we should fear more than leaving, that is remaining.
The END GAME: WHY the WEST is LOST
The truth about migrants
