SECURITY RISK: EU passports FOR SALE for £2m in new migration scandal to hit bloc
CYPRUS has been slammed by MEPs for its decision to sell passports to raise funds to help them recover from financial crisis.
Passports are for sale in Cyprus after the Government ratified laws
Individuals can currently pay £2m and be granted a passport in just three months.
Now there's claims the “citizenship-by-investment” program is a risk to security and that will add to the current terror crisis gripping Europe.
The Cypriot government has lobbied Brussels to make it easier for non EU-nations to be able to make a financial investment in the country which then gives them the right to free movement.
But the scheme is said to be "risky" from a security point of view and has been criticised by Portugal and Estonian MEPs.
Cyprus's interior minister Socratis Hasikos told the country's parliament the process has raised £2.15 billion for Cyprus since its introduction following its bail out in 2013.
Cyprus has had issues with migration for decades now it is selling passports
Selling passports is unacceptable
It is also a policy adopted by Malta.
But the decision has been questioned by MEPs who claim it undermines the Shengen zone.
EU Parliamentiary Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee member Ana Gomes said: “I’m really appalled to see that these programs are proliferating. “It’s really outrageous.
“Selling passports is unacceptable."
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Meanwhile ex Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet said: "It’s not always clear if [the applicants] do not have a hidden agenda which may be risky from a security point of view.
Cyprus introduced its program as a “temporary” measure to raise funds after the country was bailed out in 2013.
The EU has been hit by huge immigration issues with countries struggling to make up with the flows.
According to the charity Full Fact in the year to March 2016, an estimated 270,000 citizens from other EU countries immigrated to the UK, and about 90,000 emigrated abroad.
They say EU ‘net migration’ is at record levels at around 180,000.