A balanced approach combining protection, effective migration management and legal pathways is essential for a sustainable migration policy, Deputy Minister of Migration and International Protection Nicholas Ioannides told the MigraMed 2026 conference, on Wednesday, in Nicosia.
Speaking at the conference entitled ‘Migration in the Eastern Mediterranean: Challenges, Responsibilities and European Perspectives’, Ioannides said a credible migration system must protect those genuinely in need while tackling irregular migration and smuggling networks, ensuring effective returns and developing orderly legal pathways.
Ambassador of Italy to Cyprus, Antonella Cavallari, and Nicosia Mayor, Charalambos Prountzos, also addressed the conference, with discussions focusing on migration challenges in the Eastern Mediterranean, European cooperation and the integration of migrants into local communities.
Ioannides said that migration management is a constant balancing exercise. On the one hand, he said, a credible migration system must provide protection to those who genuinely need it. On the other, it must address irregular migration, tackle smuggling and human trafficking networks, ensure effective returns and develop orderly and legal migration pathways. These objectives, he stressed, should not be viewed as competing priorities, but as complementary elements of a balanced and sustainable policy.
Achieving them, he added, requires cooperation between countries of origin, transit and destination, as well as between governments, European and international institutions, local authorities and civil society organisations.
Cyprus-Italy cooperation
The Deputy Minister made particular reference to cooperation between Cyprus and Italy, highlighting the two countries’ long-standing historical and cultural ties, their shared Mediterranean identity and their membership of the European Union.
He said the two countries also work closely within the MED5 framework to address the migration challenges facing member states at the EU’s external borders. Their shared experience, he added, contributes to efforts to develop European responses based on international law, solidarity and responsibility-sharing.
Cavallari: Migration flows need to be managed
On her part, Italian Ambassador to Cyprus, Antonella Cavallari, placed particular emphasis on the human dimension of migration and the role that civil society can play alongside governments.
She said that governments and politicians bear the greatest responsibility for decision-making, but society also has an important role and bears responsibility for the choices it makes. Cavallari stressed that the human dimension should never be lost in discussions about migration, noting that ‘behind every number there is a person, a family, a history’.
She also stressed that migration flows should not simply be tackled, but managed, as migration can, under the right conditions, also represent an opportunity while helping address the needs of host countries. She placed particular emphasis on addressing the root causes of migration and on cooperation between countries of origin, transit and destination.
The Italian Ambassador also referred to conflicts as a major driver of migration flows, particularly in a region such as the Eastern Mediterranean, while stressing the importance of cooperation at European level in developing a common approach to migration management.
Prountzos: We need to talk about migration without stereotypes
Nicosia Mayor, Charalambos Prountzos, stressed the need for the public debate to move beyond stereotypes and focus on the real economic and social dimensions of migration.
Prountzos spoke of a form of ‘social hypocrisy’ in the way different categories of migrants are perceived. He said affluent migrants are treated differently from people arriving from conflict zones or less economically privileged regions, who are often portrayed as a burden on society.
He also raised the issue of migrants’ actual contribution to the Cypriot economy, particularly in sectors facing labour shortages. He referred specifically to construction and tourism, questioning whether Cyprus’s high rates of economic growth could have been achieved without migrant labour. He also pointed to migrants’ contribution to the social insurance system.
As he stressed, the debate should not be framed as one between those who ‘love’ migrants and those who ‘hate’ them, but should instead examine, in a measured way, what migration actually contributes to and entails for host countries.