Our View: Is it any surprise the government is resorting to pushbacks?

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that the Cyprus Republic had violated Article 3 of European Convention on Human Rights, prohibiting inhuman or degrading treatment, in its treatment of two Syrian asylum seekers. The Republic had also violated Article 4 of Protocol No 4 on the prohibition of collective expulsion of aliens as well as Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) and Article 3 of the European Convention.

None of this could have come as a surprise, as it is no secret that the Anastasiades government, faced with a big inflow of asylum seekers, eventually resorted to pushbacks. The current government is doing the same not just at sea, stopping boats coming in from Lebanon, but also in the buffer zone in which a couple of dozen asylum seekers were stranded for months. Is it such a surprise the government is resorting to pushbacks, rather than allow the numbers of asylum seekers on the island to keep rising?

The ECHR decision, which was damning for Cyprus, was based on the European Convention on Human Rights, which is a big contributing factor to the migration problem faced by most EU member-states that is largely to blame for the rise of far-right parties in most European countries. The convention puts heavy pressure on national governments forcing them to take in asylum seekers, knowing that there would be a public backlash and that the far right would politically exploit the state’s perceived weakness.

Most states recognise that the Human Rights Convention is being exploited by economic migrants, who know that by demanding asylum the doors of a European state automatically open for them and the costs for the host country start running. Apart for providing food and lodgings there is also the administrative cost of examining applications, not to mention appeals against decisions that end up in the courts. Migration, whether we like it or not, has become the main political problem facing European governments which are expected to respect the rights of everyone seeking asylum.

This was the line taken by Akel, which, commenting on the ECHR decision, claimed that “the far-right policies on migration adopted by the Anastasiades-Disy government are proving ineffective, illegal and burdening the taxpayer with fines and millions in costs.” What does the party propose the government should do? Stop the pushbacks and welcome everyone sailing to Cyprus from Lebanon? The party, disingenuously, urged President Christodoulides to demand that the EU shares out refugees/asylum seekers among all members states, in accordance with the population of each! Does the party seriously believe this will ever happen? And when countries refuse to take their share of refugees – a certainty – what does Akel propose the government should Cyprus do?

The government has no choice but to persist with the policy of pushbacks, even if this is a violation of the human rights convention and it will be fined by ECHR whenever asylum seekers apply to it. The cost is relatively small and Cyprus is only doing what other EU member states with coastlines have also done.