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30 June 2012

Cyprus: Amnesty International: irregular migrants are treated like criminals

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Hundreds of the men and women who flee each year to Cyprus in search of refuge and asylum from war, persecution and poverty are locked away by the authorities in breach of their international obligations, Amnesty International said in a new report released yesterday.

Punishment without a crime: detention of migrants and asylum-seekers in Cyprus examines the deficiencies in Cypriot law and practice that Amnesty said result in the violation of the rights of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers. It calls on the authorities to bring the country’s legislation in line with international standards.

‘’Detention should not be a tool for regulating migration. Cypriot authorities are wilfully violating international and European Union law when they detain irregular migrants without examining alternative measures and demonstrating that their detention is indeed necessary,” said Giorgos Kosmopoulos, Amnesty International’s expert on Cyprus.

“Instead it is routine to deprive them of their liberty, for months or years, not because they have committed some crime but simply to effect their deportation and even in cases where their deportation is impossible.”

The report says that most are detained for months and even for years, often in poor conditions without access to adequate medical care and usually unable to challenge the lawfulness of their detention due to the paucity of free legal aid. In many cases, Amnesty said, the authorities refuse to free people even in the case of a Supreme Court ordering their release.

Revisiting Blocks 9 and 10 of Nicosia Central Prison, and Lakatamia and Limassol police stations where illegal immigrants are kept earlier this month, an Amnesty International delegation said they had not seen any substantial improvement in the overcrowded unhygienic conditions which were “further exacerbated by the summer heat”.

Some asylum-seekers remain in detention throughout the period while their applications are examined. Amnesty International said it was aware of cases where asylum-seekers were deported while their case was pending before the Supreme Court.

‘’While they wait for a decision on their asylum application, asylum-seekers are in an extremely vulnerable position and should not be subject to immigration detention except in the most exceptional circumstances as prescribed by international and regional law and standards,’’ said Kosmopoulos

Each decision to detain should be automatically and regularly reviewed as to its lawfulness, necessity and proportionality by a court or similar competent independent and impartial body, accompanied by the adequate provision of legal aid, the report said.

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