© Sarah Malian 2009
The Richmond Village residents long to eventually live in the UK. But John Stainton, the administrative secretary for Immigration and Customs in the SBA, has said the following: ‘The UK Government doesn’t want people arriving in the SBAs to find a backdoor into the European Union. We are in discussion with the Cyprus Republic for them to take on responsibility for these remaining families. That is why we are slowly trying to reduce their dependency on the British bases by transferring their health and education provision to Cyprus. There is no reason why they cannot move into the Republic other than the intransigence of their belief that they will one day get to the UK. They won’t.’
