Borders, Migration and the Digital States of Exception in Cyprus

Cyprus is the most prominent EU destination for asylum-seeking refugees and migrants, owing to its geographical proximity to the Middle East and Northern Africa. The Republic of Cyprus (ROC) has responded with deterrence policies, often in violation of international law, aimed at curbing migration flows, which include construction of detention facilities, pushbacks at sea and at land etc. The ROC is at the same time implementing border digitization, surveillance and data-collecting practices, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), often on a discretionary basis, outside formal legal procedures. We designate such practices as “the digital states of exception,” (DSOE), understood as state operational modalities of an arbitrary character in the absence of mechanisms of democratic oversight. Cyprus’ DSOE are facilitated by its political traditions, being characterized by protracted regimes of exceptionalities that have over the course of its history led to power being concentrated into the executive branch of government. Cyprus’ unique territorial characteristics also facilitate its DSOE, with the island being territorial divided between the ROC in the South, the international unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the North and the UN controlled buffer zone in the middle—a configuration that has on an on-going basis inculcated regimes of exceptionality. The present article unravels the Cypriot DSOE by decoding the manner by which they are implemented and affect the movement and lives of asylum seekers and migrants. The goal is to decipher how the ROC’s digital bordering policies, as well as its unique territorial configuration facilitate violations of international law and human rights and, more generally, de-democratization processes. At the same time, we critically examining modalities of digital resistance by asylum seekers and migrants, as facilitated through emerging technologies, including AI, and practices of grassroot “digital solidarity.”