The most important aspect for dealing with immigration is to address the root causes of the phenomenon, President Nikos Christodoulides, said ahead of the International Conference on Migration and Development, in Rome.
According to a press release on Sunday, the president said the summit was of particular importance and thanked Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for the invitation.
Cyprus, he said, “along with four other Mediterranean EU member states, the president of the EU Commission, and the European council president [were meeting] for the first time possibly, with heads of state from the countries [from which] the largest number of immigrants come.”
Christodoulides said he looked forward to “an open and honest discussion, to raise what I think is the most important issue […] if we really want to deal with the issue of immigration as a whole…that is […] the root causes that lead…these nationals […] to immigrate to Europe.”
Particularly important, the president said, is the presence of European and international economic organisations, and seeing how these countries can be supported so as to end these migration flows.
Christodoulides referred to the example of Italy, saying that the Italian PM had undertaken an initiative with neighbouring countries, which was a successful model to be built upon.
Meanwhile, in a tweet, the President wrote: “over the past six years, Cyprus has consistently been the EU member state with the highest number of first time applications for international protection in relation to its population size.”
“Over the past 6 yrs, Cyprus has consistently been the EU MS with the highest no of 1st time applications for int’l protection in relation to its population size”, Int’l Conference on Development and Migration, Rome, 23 July. pic.twitter.com/2vc26RrsFI
— NikosChristodoulides (@Christodulides) July 23, 2023