Human Smuggling and Trafficking in Cyprus: some preliminary observations

By Andrea Manoli, PhD Candidate, Coordinator of the project ‘Smuggling and Human Trafficking across the Green Line’ (August 2021-January 2022)

 

The Republic of Cyprus was established as an independent and sovereign Republic on 16 August 1960 ceasing the British sovereignty over Cyprus.[1] The Constitution of the Republic is based on bi-communality which means that in many respects it permeates an equal status to the Greek community representing the 82% of the population, with the Turkish community representing the 18%.[2] The above-mentioned constitutional legal order has been long disrupted by the law of necessity following the 1963 inter and intra-state crisis. As a result of the crisis, in 1964, a United Nations Peacekeeping operation came to the island with Resolution 186/1964[3] and has remained there since. Despite the repeated calls of the international community for a ceasefire, in July 1974, the Republic of Turkey, one of the guarantor powers of the Republic, invaded the island and occupied the northern part of the island.[4]

Since the 1974 occupation and invasion, most of the constituents of each community have lived separately in the northern and southern geographical regions of the island that are currently divided by the UN-controlled buffer zone. The buffer zone also called ‘the Green Line’ is 180km long and in its eastern part is interrupted by the British Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia. Ever since the division of the island, the international community has accepted the Republic of Cyprus as the sole legitimate government in the island. Since 2003, a number of crossing points have opened up between the north and the south which are regulated by the so called ‘Green Line Regulation’.[5] In a nutshell, Council Regulation 866/2004 sets out the terms under which persons and goods can cross from the non-government-controlled areas into the government-controlled areas and vice versa.[6] Furthermore, the whole of Cyprus has acceded the European Union on 1^st May 2004, but the EU legislation is suspended in the northern part of the island, where the Government of the Republic of Cyprus does not exercise effective control, in line with Protocol 10 to the 2003 Act of Accession.[7] According to UNFICYP, approximately 1,000 incidents occur within the buffer zone each year. In 2019 alone, there were 3.7 million crossings by people who were working, shopping or socialising across the Green Line.[8] Nevertheless, the challenges of policing the Green Line have permitted a lot of illicit activities to flourish almost undisturbed. A grave form these illicit activities can take is human smuggling and trafficking.

Human trafficking across the Green Line was flagged up as a serious issue that needed the attention of the UN Secretary General back in 2005.[9] Yet, 16 years later, it has remained an unresolved issue and that has been highlighted by the UN Secretary-General in both 2017 and 2020.[10] In its turn, human smuggling which is usually associated with migrants and irregular flows has also been an issue for Cyprus as a predominant destination country. Reportedly, almost all the migrants apprehended in the government-controlled areas after having irregularly crossed the Green Line had previously arrived in the northern part of Cyprus from Turkey.[11] It is possible the crime may start out as human smuggling but quickly turn into human trafficking. Due to its inherent characteristics, it can be said that the Green Line can have a very negative impact on human smuggling and trafficking and that the extent of the phenomenon remains unknown. This is due to the fact that the activities are taking place across the very long and difficult to regulate Line. It is thus extremely difficult to estimate the exact number of irregular crossings from the occupied areas to the Republic of Cyprus through the buffer zone. Exactly because of the unclear picture, it is also difficult to know what is happening to people concerned and through what sort of exploitation, if any, they have been through. Consequently, it is extremely difficult to map the phenomenon as how demand from one side of the Green Line feeds supply from the other and vice versa is unclear. It thus follows that the mere existence of the Line exacerbates the problem just because large part of it is essentially unpoliced. Although theoretically the UN polices the buffer zone, its very limited jurisdictional powers create some gaps. Furthermore, the lack of cooperation and communication between the law enforcement agencies on the two sides of the Green Line is another issue. Although the legal obligations of Cyprus and Turkey are straightforward as per international law with particular reference to the case of Güzelyurtlu and Others v Cyprus and Turkey,[12] politically the communication between the agents of a recognised and an unrecognised state is understandably controversial. For that reason, there are specific fora for communication in this respect, one of which is the Joint Communication Room which receives information on criminal activities and facilitates the dialogue with the help of the UN. The JCR was formed in 2009, as a sub-committee of the Technical Committee of Crime and Criminal matters which is one of the 12 bi-communal technical committees established to promote better collaboration on matters between the two communities, creating as such ‘engagement without recognition’.[13]

Nonetheless, the story of the island of Cyprus does not stop here. The current platform will tell the story and the challenges posed by the Green Line through a number of outputs to come. Recommendations on good practices in eliminating the illicit phenomena can also be found in our free open access Handbook, available on this website.

 

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[1] The Cyprus Act 1960, Section 2; R (on the application of Tag Eldin Ramadan Bashir and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] UKSC 45; Klearchos Kyriakides, ‘The 1960 Treaties and the search for security in Cyprus (11(4) Journal of Balkan and near Eastern Studies, 2009) 427

[2] The Cyprus Act 1960, Section 1; Klearchos Kyriakides, ‘The 1960 Treaties and the search for security in Cyprus (11(4) Journal of Balkan and near Eastern Studies, 2009) 427

[3] UN Security Council, Security Council Resolution 186 (1964) [The Cyprus Question], 4 March 1964, S/RES/186 (1964)

[4] European Commission, ‘Cyprus- Population: demographic situation, languages and religions’ (European Commission, 30/11/2021)< https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/population-demographic-situation-languages-and-religions-15_en > last accessed on 23/12/2021

[5] European Commission, Report from the Commission to the Council: Sixteenth report on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 866/2004 of 29 April 2004 and the situation resulting from its application covering the period 1 January until 31 December 2019 < https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/com_2020_239_f1_report_from_commission_en_v4_p1_1079406.pdf > last accessed on 23/12/2021

[6] Ibid

[7] Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic and the adjustments to the Treaties on which the European Union is founded – Protocol No 10 on Cyprus, Official Journal L 236 , 23/09/2003 P. 0955 – 0955

[8] European Commission, Report from the Commission to the Council: Sixteenth report on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) No 866/2004 of 29 April 2004 and the situation resulting from its application covering the period 1 January until 31 December 2019 < https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/com_2020_239_f1_report_from_commission_en_v4_p1_1079406.pdf > last accessed on 23/12/2021

[9] US State Department, ‘Trafficking in Persons 2021 Report’ 202-205; GRETA, ‘Cyprus: Third Evaluation Round: Aces to Justice and Effective Remedies for Victims in Trafficking in Human Beings’ GRETA (2020) 04 (11 June 2020); Data Collection on Trafficking in Human Beings in the EU (2020)

[10] Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations operation in Cyprus (10 July 2017, S/2017/586) para 15 <http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_2017_586.pdf> last accessed on 11/01/2022; United Nations operation in Cyprus: Report of the Secretary-General (7 January 2020, S/2020/23), para 9 <https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_2020_23.pdf,> last accessed on 11/01/2022

[11] Initial Statement by the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Nicos Nouris, at the Press Conference with the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ms Ylva Johansson (2021) <https://www.pio.gov.cy/en/press-releases-article.html?id=22976#flat > last accessed on 23/12/2021

[12] Guzelyurtlu and others v. Cyprus and Turkey [GC] Application No 36925/07, Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights. 29 January 2019

[13] Ker-Lindsay, James, and Eiki Berg. 2018. ‘Introduction: A Conceptual Framework for Engagement with de facto States’, Ethnopolitics, 17: 335-42; Nasia Hadjigeorgiou and Dina Kapardis, ‘Police Cooperation in Cases of Unrecognised Secessions: The Joint Communications Rooms in Cyprus’ (2022, forthcoming)