NEW LAW BRINGS CYPRUS INTO COMPLIANCE WITH EU

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NICOSIA 000125 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS FOR EUR/SE MCLEGG-TRIPP AND EMELLINGER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM CY SUBJECT: NEW LAW BRINGS CYPRUS INTO COMPLIANCE WITH EU MIGRATION POLICY ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Cyprus's Parliament passed February 1 a new immigration law to bring the nation into compliance with European Union norms. Under the legislation, legally employed foreign workers who have been on the island for five years can apply for long-term residency. That many officials had fought the law for years calls into question the government's commitment to implement and enforce its pro-immigrant spirit, however. END SUMMARY. -------------- In Compliance... Finally -------------- ¶2. (U) A year behind schedule, Cyprus adopted immigration legislation February 1 that brings the country's laws on long-term residence into compliance with EU Directive 2003-109-EC. Third-country nationals who have been on Cyprus legally for more than five years -- dating back before Cyprus's EU accession on May 1, 2004 -- and who are gainfully employed will now be able to adjust to long-term residency status (similar to our LPR arrangement). ¶3. (U) The ROC estimates that nearly 5,000 foreign workers and family members will be eligible to apply for long-term residency. Filipino and Sri Lankan domestic, service and construction workers are expected to be the largest beneficiary groups. Chairman of the immigrant support organization KISA Doros Polykarpou told Poloff February 8 that another 3,000 immigrants may also be eligible if the "Migration Committee" -- a small, high-level review board -- resists a to-the-letter interpretation of the new legislation. -------------- More Than Wishing Away a "Problem" -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Polykarpou further asserted that this figure could have been twice as high, had the GOC not actively been preventing foreign workers from staying legally on the island for longer than five years. Soon after Brussels issued the directive, he claimed, the GOC's Council of Ministers decreased the maximum-length employment permit from six to four years, expecting that this change would "solve the problem" of foreign workers seeking long-term residence. Of course, those who had already accrued five years on Cyprus or had received a permit extension "did not just disappear, as the government had hoped," Polykarpou jabbed. ¶5. (SBU) KISA also had received reports of the GOC lobbying Cypriot business associations to fire foreign workers before they could reach the five-year finish line. According to Polykarpou, government officials had asked employers why they wanted "to damage the country by allowing foreign workers to permanently stay on Cyprus?" To assist them to meet their demands for labor, the government would continue to allow the hiring of foreigners on short-term work contracts, regardless of the EU directive's mandate. In fact, the Ministry of Interior had begun to charge only a CyP75 (approx. $170) fee for each of the first four years of an employment permit but increased the fee to CyP300 ($675) for any extension after that. Such tactics were consistent, Polykarpou stated, with those of successive Cypriot governments that "never thought Cyprus needed a migration policy," preferring to issue permits to temporary workers to keep labor costs down and to weaken local trade unions. ¶6. (SBU) Meanwhile, foreign workers have charged Migration with trying to intimidate and/or trick them into leaving the country; Migration has cited staffing gaps and an increasing caseload. While Emboffs have observed understaffing at Migration, Post has also received reports from KISA and other sources of migration officials providing incorrect information depending on applicants' nationality, sending them on spurious paper chases and delaying processing for migrants already "on the clock." Emboffs have even heard accounts that migration officials blatantly lied, telling foreign nationals that, in order to obtain Cypriot residency, they first had to return to their home countries to file applications. -------------- NICOSIA 00000125 002 OF 002 "A Fairly Good Law" -------------- ¶7. (U) Brussels had given member states great latitude in implementing the immigration directive, Polykarpou revealed, as long as its basic principles were met. Early GOC drafts contained provisions that worried immigration activists, however. The KISA chief was thankful that Communist party AKEL and right-wing DISY were able to roll back the bill's most onerous requirements, including a mandatory, strenuous Greek-language exam. "The MOI clearly intended to impose standards that most applicants could not meet," Polykarpou charged. AKEL successfully argued, however, that long-term residency applicants needed only a good, basic knowledge of Greek that living and working in Cyprus for five years would provide. Also dropped from the new law were exams on Cypriot history and culture. Lastly, MPs reduced the burden on applicants from showing irrefutable proof of long-term legal employment. ¶8. (U) Though "a fairly good law," Polykarpou argued, there was one issue of particular concern, i.e., the new law still included an "officially limited permit" disqualification. Using this loophole, Migration could deny an otherwise eligible applicant if that foreign worker originally entered on a four-year permit. Polykarpou claimed this measure would not only contradict the spirit of the law but would violate the EU directive. Minister of Interior Neoclis Sylikioutis and Attorney General Petros Clerides had assured KISA that the government would not exploit this loophole in an attempt to reject additional applications, however. Optimistically, Polykarpou thought the "Migration Committee," which was scheduled to review all cases in the next six months, would give eligible workers the benefit of the doubt instead of "trying to find an excuse to say no." KISA would be ready to challenge this provision in the European Court of Justice, however, which could affect up to 3,000 applicants. -------------- COMMENT: An Enlightened Few -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Economic growth and increased prosperity has changed Cyprus like it did Spain and Ireland, turning a country that once exported human capital into a net importer. As a result, an island that 30 years ago was almost exclusively Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot now features a per capita immigrant population similar to Germany's or France's, with all the pros and cons that brings. Although the new immigration law's passage did not receive wide media coverage, a few columnists did highlight the government's responsibility to integrate these new residents into Cypriot society. By offering free Greek language instruction, they argued, the ROC could help immigrants avoid isolation in linguistic and concrete ghettos. Polykarpou even believed that many successful applicants would stay on Cyprus rather than seeking greener pastures elsewhere in the EU. Confronted with this seeming fait accompli, GOC decision makers can seek to craft a more diverse Cyprus made stronger by willing, integrated newcomers, or, by doing nothing, can create pockets of resentment and isolation. If implemented smartly, this new immigration legislation appears a fine first step on the path of the former. SCHLICHER