FES BRIEFING CYPRUS: ASYLUM AND MIGRATION IN THE AGE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Corina Demetriou Nicos Trimikliniotis July 2022 Since the pandemic, the Republic of Cyprus has instigated a new policy of externalisation in the context of Cyprus via ille­gal pushbacks of refugees at sea and in land, fencing with barbed wire and surveillance and refusing access to asylum at the crossing checkpoints. These processes impinge on access to asylum in the territory of States in violation of national, EU and international law. Migration and asylum policy in Cyprus appears to be premised on several policy assumptions, which need to be examined in turn, both in terms of their validity, their effectiveness, as re­gards the objectives intended, and the actual results. It must be noted from the outset that, despite the fact that migration, in general, and asylum are obviously inter-related, the policy assumptions seem to conflate the two distinct categories as one and the same. In practice, this results in doing away with the prioritised category of persons requiring international pro­tection. This has grave consequences on policy-making and creates a general sense of confusion. The anti-refugee and anti-immigrant discourses and repressive policies adopted have a negative implication on society. It generates a hostile environment, a climate of fear, hate and xenophobia, and it has an adverse effect on the rights of all vulnerable groups. of overstayers without a process of regularisation. The fact that there has been no proper pathway for integration has essentially blockaded access to all legal means for long-term residence for the vast majority of third country labour. The national action plan between 2010 and 2012 merely gathered existing disparate policies into one document, rather than genuinely creating a pathway for migrant integration. There has been no action since then, whilst the national action plan awaiting final approval by the Government continues along the same lines: rather than reviewing and correcting existing policies that generate exclusions, discrimination, marginalisa­tion and distortions, it channels funds into various existing governmental institutions, without creating a genuine a path­way for migrant integration. The consequence of this is the precarious existence of migrant overstayers or persons who left their jobs, of a number of students and others who apply for asylum: This has led to distorted job situations of labour exploitation, sometimes so extreme that it amounts to trafficking. This has also led many economic migrants to resort to the asylum system as a way to escape being exploited and the predicament of having to pay student fees to colleges in order to secure a residence permit. ASSUMPTION 1: MIGRANTS CAN COME AND WORK IN CYPRUS TEMPORARILY TO FILL IN SOME TEMPORARY LOW-SKILL LABOUR MAR­KET GAPS AND THEN THEY MUST LEAVE. Who benefits: exploitative employers, colleges that migrants use to be able to work in Cyprus and agents who bring foreign workers to Cyprus. Politically, this benefits the far right, an­ti-immigration, xenophobic and racist groups. FALSE This assumption dates back to the 1990s when Cyprus first opened its doors to migrant workers. The number of undocu­mented overstayers suggests that the policy assumption was not only wrong but that the labour market gaps were not temporary at all and were not located only in low skill jobs. The rigid migration permit system providing employers with specific posts to be filled by what policy documents referred to as‘working hands’ generated a massively distorted system ASSUMPTION 2: IF WE ERECT NEW BARRIERS TO PREVENT THEM FROM ENTERING THE RE­PUBLIC OR PROVIDE INHUMANE RECEPTION CONDITIONS, THEY WILL STOP COMING. FALSE In recent years, unprecedented numbers of migrants have ar­rived despite the repressive and preventative measures adopt­ed: pushbacks at land and at sea, barbed wire placed along 1