The Ministry of Interior proposed amendments to the Cyprus Refugee Law and submitted them to the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs on the 12 December 2024.
The proposed amendments were discussed and voted in favour at the Parliament's plenary session on 4 December 2025. The bill revises the Refugee Law with the aim of modernizing the international protection system in Cyprus and setting a clearer distribution of responsibilities after the establishment of the Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection.
Specifically, the main elements adopted with the bill are:
- Amendment of specific provisions of the law, so that the powers of the Minister of the Interior under that law are exercised by the Council of Ministers or the Deputy Minister of Migration and International Protection or the head of the Asylum Service, as the case may be, to align with the provisions of the Law on the Establishment of the Deputy Ministry of Migration and International Protection and Related Matters.
- Revision of the provisions concerning the revocation of international protection to ensure that once it is found that a beneficiary of protection fall under any of the cases provided for in the law for the exclusion of protection, the status is revoked as appropriate.
- Introduction of a ten (10) day time limit within which a person whose international protection status is revoked, following a relevant finding by the head of the Asylum Service regarding the cases of exclusion of applicants provided for in the basic law, may present the reasons why he or she considers that the status in question should not be revoked. Specifically, the bill aims to effectively implement the provisions of Directive 2011/95/EU with regard to the clauses for revoking subsidiary protection status. The aim is to address cases where beneficiaries of subsidiary protection are involved in serious crimes or pose a threat to public order and security.
- Representatives from UNHCR, KISA and Cyprus Refugee Council submitted on this point that the time limit is too short and should be extended to 30 days. They highlighted that such a short deadline might not effectively serve the rights of applicants for international protection and, on the other hand, deprive their lawyers of the time needed to familiarize themselves with their client's case.