ECJ ruling scuppers Cyprus’ plans to declare parts of Syria safe

A European Court of Justice ruling reached on Friday has scuppered Cyprus’ plans to declare parts of Syria as safe, with a view to returning migrants to those parts of Syria.

The court specified that the designation of a third country as a safe country of origin must cover the country’s entire territory, thus precluding situations akin to that which Cyprus had been seeking, whereby regions of Syria would have been declared safe in line with indications made by the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), while others would not.

The case was brought after a Moldovan national submitted an asylum application in the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic considers all of the territory of the Republic of Moldova to be a safe country of origin, with the exception of the internationally unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria.

As such, in its conclusions on the case, the court clarified that a country must meet the criteria to be considered safe across its territory to be designated as safe, and that as such, declaring regions of a country safe when others are not would violate European Union law.

The goal of having parts of Syria declared as safe to return migrants had been one of the flagship policies of Cyprus’ government this year, with the claim having been made based on indications made by the EUAA regarding the provinces of Damascus and Tartus.

Tartus is a port city located around 160 kilometres east of Cape Greco. The EUAA said “there is, in general, no risk” of “believing that the person would face a real risk of suffering serious harm” should they be returned there.

On Damascus, Syria’s capital, the EUAA concluded that “in general there is no real risk” of harm, but “individual elements always need to be taken into account as they could put [someone] in risk-enhancing situations.”

Practical issues with the plans had been raised earlier in the year, given that Damascus is landlocked and surrounded by places which are decidedly unsafe.

Land routes between the port of Tartus and Damascus all pass through Homs, where, according to the EUAA, “indiscriminate violence is taking place.” Routes into Damascus from Jordan in the south all pass through the Dar’a governorate, where, the EUAA says, individuals would “solely on account of their presence on its territory face a real risk” of violence.

Despite the potential issues with the plans, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou embarked on a tour of Europe to discuss the matter with his counterparts from three other EU member states.

Ioannou first travelled to Copenhagen, where he met his Danish counterpart Kaare Dybvad Bek. Bek said “the time has come to examine the real facts in Syria to allow states to carry out returns under specific and strict conditions.”

He added that he recognises the “enormous pressure on Cyprus due to the massive flows of migrants of Syrian origin.”

The following day, Ioannou met with Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan, where an agreement was reached to launch a joint factfinding mission operated by Cyprus and the Czech Republic to Syria, with the aim of designating parts of the country as safe.

He then travelled to Athens to meet Greek Migration Minister Dimitris Kairidis, and said he “welcomed” Greece into the group of EU member states focusing on the matter of declaring Syria safe.

Cyprus can also rely on the support of Austria in its endeavour, with the Austrian government having told the Cyprus Mail of its support for the plan in March.

A spokesperson for the Austrian interior ministry said Minister Gerhard Karner had told the European Union’s justice and affairs council that “deportations to safe areas in Syria should be possible again in the medium term.”

However, support across the bloc is not unanimous. A spokesperson for Sweden’s EU Affairs minister denied the claim that they had also supported Cyprus’ plan to declare parts of Syria safe to the Cyprus Mail, describing it as a “misunderstanding”.

“We have heard similar proposals raised but it is not something that Sweden has taken a position on,” the spokesperson added.

Kairidis had added to this sentiment following an inter-ministerial summit held in May involving representatives of Greece, Cyprus, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Malta, and Poland.

“After 13 years, the facts and conditions in Syrai have changed. It is therefore time, as a whole in the EU, to find the appropriate ways which will allow the reassessment of the current realities prevailing in Syria, and, by extension, a redefining of our attitude.”

In April, President Nikos Christodoulides had announced in a social media post that the government had suspended its processing of asylum claims for applicants of Syrian origin.

This announcement was rationalised two days later to mean that the government would act in this regard to the extent that European Union law will allow, and wait the maximum allowed period of time – 21 months – between the submission of an asylum application and it being examined.

With Cyprus having created a migration deputy ministry in June, responsibility for the matter is now no longer under the umbrella of the interior ministry. The Cyprus Mail contacted the migration deputy ministry for comment on the matter and did not receive a response.