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From crucifixes to pin-up girls
By Stefanos Evripidou
TUCKED AWAY a few kilometres from the Nicosia-Limassol highway is a pastel-coloured, fenced off enclosure that could easily be mistaken for a Teletubbies summer campsite.

Kofinou Reception Centre is the only open centre in Cyprus where asylum seekers may go on arrival and stay a while until they find their feet. The whole purpose of the government-funded centre is to provide temporary food and shelter for asylum seekers, particularly families and single women, when they have nowhere else to go. “Temporary” being the key word, as the idea is they should soon acclimatise to their new environment, learn about Cyprus laws on asylum, employment and social benefits and move out after getting a job and finding their own accommodation.

There is a delicate balance to be kept here as on the one hand, the state must provide adequate infrastructure for families and others to live with dignity and respect, on the other, they mustn’t make things too comfortable, or else there’ll be no incentive to leave.

The Cyprus Mail visited the isolated centre, found 3km from Kofinou village between Nicosia and Limassol, to see how the site was running. On opening in January 2004, the Centre initially provided accommodation for up to 120 asylum seekers, but then refurbished to make life easier for its inhabitants. According to the officer on duty, it can now hold up to 80 asylum seekers, while plans are under way to increase this capacity by double or more. The small camp is made up of 18 rectangular prefabricated units, roughly the size of a cargo container. New units will be brought to the site soon to increase capacity, but these ones will have fitted toilets and sinks, as now, residents have to share common bathrooms, separated into male and female in two of the prefab units on the far side of the camp.

Driving up to the site, one got a real sense of its desolation. With only goats and fields of olive trees for neighbours, there was little to break the surrounding silence. No one could possibly want to stay more than a day or two max before going stir crazy. And yet…

Despite the thousands of asylum seekers in Cyprus, and the minimum capacity of the place, only 19 people were living at the centre, three women and 16 men, all single. The last families had left three weeks ago, rendering the colourful playground useless. A recent project to improve the place has left the prefab units looking like a giant toddler’s playhouse, each painted light pastel colours.

There is a small classroom, kitchen, laundry room, lounge area with satellite TV and internet, though residents are having a hard time getting online following a problem with late night surfing of adultzone sites. The classroom is adorned with flags and hand-drawn posters referring to oppressive practices in Iran or diamonds in the Congo.

The bus stop is around two kilometres away, about a ten minute walk. The Asylum Service is responsible for the centre, while the Kofinou Community Welfare Council carries out its day-to-day running. Free bus vouchers are available to every resident for rides to all major towns on the island. Transport to hospitals is also arranged by the officer on duty. Food catering is provided three times a day, according to the dietary requirements of each, while two cleaners ensure that all common spaces are spotlessly clean.

There is freedom of movement though residents and guests must sign in and out to avoid any unwanted trends, like prostitution. Each prefab unit has three “personal spaces” or bedrooms, with a small closet for clothes and bed. Each room has air conditioning and a fridge. Each resident gets €85 a month from the state. No alcohol is allowed but nobody checks bags coming in.

It has everything you need to survive without difficulty. But it is also very, very isolated and distant from any form of community or social life, making it unsuitable for long-term stay, even demoralising. On the days when the nearby slaughterhouse burns its carcasses, it gets suffocating. It makes sense that people would want to leave as soon as possible.

And yet, there is a 77-year-old Russian woman who has been there seven months, a 32-year-old Afghan has been there six months, a Sudanese man five months. People are not leaving. If they do leave, they get €645 a month from Welfare, but for some reason, people are not going to the centre (19 out of a potential 80), and they are not leaving, as preferred, after a few months.

According to one officer, families prefer the towns where there are jobs and places for the children to go, while for those who do come, it’s a hard jump from the centre to the town, where only a full-time job can guarantee their survival, even with the monthly stipend. A voluntary teacher used to teach Greek lessons at the centre but has since left, leaving residents with a basic few words to speak.

Theoretically, residents are not allowed to work while there, yet the authorities turn a blind eye when the odd pick-up truck comes to collect an itinerant worker for a day.

“It is very, very clean,” said one resident who recently converted to Christianity and has a large cross on one side of his wall, with pin-up girls on the other. “It takes about 35 minutes to get to the nearest supermarket though,” he added.

“The state spends over half a million euros annually on the centre, which could be used to create small units in the towns instead. They don’t need to prepare food for them, it’s a reception centre, which is meant to house them for three months and give them the tools to move on,” said Doros Polycarpou of migrant support group KISA. “How are they supposed to find a job and rent a house in the towns from Kofinou. The Kofinou Council is not equipped to facilitate this, they need proper programmes. They end up trapped there. It’s a vicious circle,” he added.

The NGO official further highlighted that the Interior Ministry has yet to announce programmes for the European Refugee Fund for 2009, meaning that no organisation has been able to apply for funding to supply the centre with social workers and other help this year, while 2009 is almost over.



Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009

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Asylum numbers drop sharply
By Elias Hazou
THE NUMBER of political asylum decisions has dropped sharply, according to figures released by Eurostat.

The statistics, for the second quarter of the year, said authorities here made 1,250 decisions on applications for political asylum; 245 applications were granted.

In addition, authorities approved 10 cases for refugee status, 220 cases were granted subsidiary protection, and an additional 10 received protection on humanitarian grounds.

In total, 1,010 applications were rejected. The rejection rate is not clear, because data on the number of total asylum applicants in Cyprus (from the second quarter of 2008 through to the second quarter of 2009) is unavailable, as is information on the number of new asylum applications for Q2 2009. In fact, the island is the only EU-27 nation that did not post data for either of these two fields.

According to the Eurostat report, statistics on asylum applications in Cyprus relate to the number of administrative cases instead of individuals. The report notes: “This may result in underestimation of the actual number of applications, as one administrative case may cover several family members being a subject of this application.”

Eurostat did publish the five main citizenships of asylum applicants where Cyprus is concerned. The top five are: Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Syria.

According to official government figures, in 2008 there were 6,800 decisions. Of these, 26 refugees were recognised and 69 were given humanitarian status; 3,500 were rejected and 3,200 cases were closed.

According to the Interior Ministry, the government spends some €20 million annually on asylum seekers.

According to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (the Refugee Convention), Article 1A(2), the term “refugee” is applied to persons who owing to well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, are outside the country of their nationality and are unable or, owing to such fear, are unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of their country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of their former habitual residence as a result of such events, are unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

Subsidiary protection involves the granting of temporary protection to displaced persons from third countries who cannot return to their country of origin and for persons who otherwise need international protection.


Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009