It is reported that the number of people seeking asylum in the EU has dropped by 22 percent in 2003 from the previous year, but considerable increases have occurred in the new EU states. The highest percentage rise has been recorded in Cyprus - 364%.
In an article published in the Cyprus Weekly (not online) on February 27, it is revealed that:
Only six applicants for asylum out of a total of 4,877 have been approved since the Asylum Service (Cyprus south) was set up in January 2002. Another 800 cases have been disposed of, while about 4,200 are still pending. The figures, given in reply to a Cyprus Weekly written questionnaire, reveal the tremendous workload that has to be cleared by the 10 members staff of the Interior Ministry's Asylum Service. There were only 839 asylum cases in 2002 concerning 952 people but numbers rose dramatically during 2003 with 4,036 applications piling up in respect to 4,411 people.
Whatever the truth, or otherwise, of the Weekly's claim that the ' majority of asylum seekers are considered to be people who come and see as students but work illegally and then apply asylum when their stay permit expires' this is a quite appalling situation. A situation which the government itself bares considerable responsibility for producing. This from a longer article published in the Cyprus Mail late last year (26/10/03):
The government has tightened rules governing foreign students to reduce the chance of migrants using student visas as a backdoor to illegal work. Weekly checks being carried out by the Immigration Department on students’ attendance records at colleges and the increase of registration fees as well as bank guarantees rising from £1,000 to £2,000 has left foreign students struggling to make it through an academic year. “If we are caught working illegally, we are immediately deported and blacklisted so we basically lose everything that we have worked for in college so far,” the student said.
