Cyprus-Forum.com

[Bananiot]

The trial of Doros Polycarpou, Cyprus's key anti-racism activist, implies the far-right has the support of the authorities

On 13 March, a Larnaca court in Cyprus will hear closing arguments in the trial of anti-racism activist Doros Polycarpou on charges of rioting. The court case raises several wider questions about the Cypriot authorities' attitude to a growing number of far-right groups. It also troublingly implies that the country's authorities may be using the judicial process to shut down protest.

Cyprus has, in only two decades, become one of the most diverse populations in the EU, thanks mainly to a change in labour laws in the early 1990s. Foreign-born workers make up around 20% of the total workforce. Third-country nationals – people from outside the EU – are overwhelmingly employed as domestic and care workers and unskilled agricultural labour. These sectors have much lower minimum wages than other forms of employment – domestic workers are paid on average €326 (£274) a month, for example – and workers enjoy little in the way of legal protection of their rights against exploitation.

Predictably, Cypriot nationals mostly avoid these jobs, now overwhelmingly carried out by guest workers on temporary visas. The result has created an identifiable underclass, one that is often the target of racial abuse or even physical attacks, as well as pervasive prejudice from employers, landlords and government employees. In these recessionary times, these groups have also been targeted by populist politicians and by new far-right groups such as the National Popular Front (ELAM) – whose imagery needs no very deep analysis.

Kisa was founded by Polycarpou and a handful of others in 1998 to campaign against racial discrimination, to promote multiculturalism and to provide legal and social support to migrants and refugees. Denied any significant government support for this crucial work, the founders have supported it through personal loans and by donating fees earned for various projects. However, populist politicians and media outlets have encouraged the myth that Kisa (and Polycarpou in particular) takes money from migrants for their services, or that the organisation is working against the Greek Cypriot population.

In the context of the ongoing Cyprus problem, one can understand how serious this latter accusation is. But defiance of military invasion cannot be used as an excuse for the use of migrant women as slave labour in the home, or for the trafficking and exploitation of foreign women in nightclubs, or for the persistent use of racial profiling by police.

In November 2010, a march was organised by various far-right organisations (those groups present are analysed here). In protest, Kisa decided to move the Rainbow festival, the only annual Cypriot event celebrating multiculturalism, to the Larnaca seafront on the same night. When I interviewed him for this article, Doros acknowledged that this was a poor decision, but pointed out that he'd received assurances from the government that the police would divert the anti-immigration march along a different street at a safe distance from the festival.

This did not happen. Instead, the police permitted a group that included neo-Nazis to march, shouting racist taunts and threats including "axe and fire against Kisa's dogs" to within a few feet of the festival audience, an audience made up mostly of migrant families including young children. Also present were Larnaca's mayor and the head of the European commission's representation in Cyprus.

The events that followed have been captured on video and posted on YouTube. Protesters moved to block the anti-immigration march from passing the festival. As an eyewitness to the chaotic events that followed, I know that Polycarpou was unrelenting in his efforts to ensure all protest was peaceful, even as sticks, stones and red paint were directed at him and his young family. The police failed to prevent far-right marchers from breaking off and attacking the festival itself – the film shows men donning balaclavas and taking out the electricity supply in what was clearly a pre-planned action. Later, a Turkish Cypriot musician was stabbed while Kisa's leaders had to leave Larnaca under guard.

No official inquiry has been carried out into the failings of policing and municipal co-ordination. Instead, police arrested seven festival-goers on the night, but not a single member of the far right (after video evidence was presented by Kisa, five marchers were later charged). The decision to prosecute Polycarpou seems nakedly political, especially when put alongside four previous attempts to prosecute him by police, all of which have been dropped. As he is the public face of Kisa, and now its only employee, tying him up in an often delayed court case with the threat of jail has crippled the already struggling organisation. In September, money troubles forced Kisa to close its doors, leaving most migrants with no source of free independent advice.

The prosecution has been condemned by a raft of international groups. Two trial observation missions have commented on a seeming reluctance by Cypriot authorities to meet them. Worse, a real opportunity to tackle a rising tide of far-right nationalism and pervasive racism has been missed. It is not too late to end the persecution of Polycarpou, or for the authorities to start working with, rather than against, this brave defender of human rights.

[Sotos]

So the far left government supports the far right? In that case everybody must be in agreement The problem in Cyprus are not the immigrants from 3rd countries because they do jobs that most Cypriots don't want to do. And they do those jobs because they want to do them as they earn more here than what they earn in their countries ... nobody forced them to come to Cyprus to work! The problem is that there are too many immigrants from EU ... i think there should be a limit of how many EU workers a country can accept as a percentage of its population!

[Bananiot]

Give me an example of a far left policy pursued by this "far left government"?

[Sotos]

Give me an example of a far left policy pursued by this "far left government"?

Supporting the unions and the government employees and trying to tax wealth.

[Bananiot]

Really sotos, this is the best you can do? The Unions enjoy the same level of support as with all other governments that proceeded the present one. The all powerful PASIDI union has been fed by all previous governments but it is silly to believe, if you really do believe, that this government has employed far left policies. You can accuse it of many other wrongdoings but not this.

[yialousa1971]

The trial of Doros Polycarpou, Cyprus's key anti-racism activist, implies the far-right has the support of the authorities

On 13 March, a Larnaca court in Cyprus will hear closing arguments in the trial of anti-racism activist Doros Polycarpou on charges of rioting. The court case raises several wider questions about the Cypriot authorities' attitude to a growing number of far-right groups. It also troublingly implies that the country's authorities may be using the judicial process to shut down protest.

Cyprus has, in only two decades, become one of the most diverse populations in the EU, thanks mainly to a change in labour laws in the early 1990s. Foreign-born workers make up around 20% of the total workforce. Third-country nationals – people from outside the EU – are overwhelmingly employed as domestic and care workers and unskilled agricultural labour. These sectors have much lower minimum wages than other forms of employment – domestic workers are paid on average €326 (£274) a month, for example – and workers enjoy little in the way of legal protection of their rights against exploitation.

Predictably, Cypriot nationals mostly avoid these jobs, now overwhelmingly carried out by guest workers on temporary visas. The result has created an identifiable underclass, one that is often the target of racial abuse or even physical attacks, as well as pervasive prejudice from employers, landlords and government employees. In these recessionary times, these groups have also been targeted by populist politicians and by new far-right groups such as the National Popular Front (ELAM) – whose imagery needs no very deep analysis.

Kisa was founded by Polycarpou and a handful of others in 1998 to campaign against racial discrimination, to promote multiculturalism and to provide legal and social support to migrants and refugees. Denied any significant government support for this crucial work, the founders have supported it through personal loans and by donating fees earned for various projects. However, populist politicians and media outlets have encouraged the myth that Kisa (and Polycarpou in particular) takes money from migrants for their services, or that the organisation is working against the Greek Cypriot population.

In the context of the ongoing Cyprus problem, one can understand how serious this latter accusation is. But defiance of military invasion cannot be used as an excuse for the use of migrant women as slave labour in the home, or for the trafficking and exploitation of foreign women in nightclubs, or for the persistent use of racial profiling by police.

In November 2010, a march was organised by various far-right organisations (those groups present are analysed here). In protest, Kisa decided to move the Rainbow festival, the only annual Cypriot event celebrating multiculturalism, to the Larnaca seafront on the same night. When I interviewed him for this article, Doros acknowledged that this was a poor decision, but pointed out that he'd received assurances from the government that the police would divert the anti-immigration march along a different street at a safe distance from the festival.

This did not happen. Instead, the police permitted a group that included neo-Nazis to march, shouting racist taunts and threats including "axe and fire against Kisa's dogs" to within a few feet of the festival audience, an audience made up mostly of migrant families including young children. Also present were Larnaca's mayor and the head of the European commission's representation in Cyprus.

The events that followed have been captured on video and posted on YouTube. Protesters moved to block the anti-immigration march from passing the festival. As an eyewitness to the chaotic events that followed, I know that Polycarpou was unrelenting in his efforts to ensure all protest was peaceful, even as sticks, stones and red paint were directed at him and his young family. The police failed to prevent far-right marchers from breaking off and attacking the festival itself – the film shows men donning balaclavas and taking out the electricity supply in what was clearly a pre-planned action. Later, a Turkish Cypriot musician was stabbed while Kisa's leaders had to leave Larnaca under guard.

No official inquiry has been carried out into the failings of policing and municipal co-ordination. Instead, police arrested seven festival-goers on the night, but not a single member of the far right (after video evidence was presented by Kisa, five marchers were later charged). The decision to prosecute Polycarpou seems nakedly political, especially when put alongside four previous attempts to prosecute him by police, all of which have been dropped. As he is the public face of Kisa, and now its only employee, tying him up in an often delayed court case with the threat of jail has crippled the already struggling organisation. In September, money troubles forced Kisa to close its doors, leaving most migrants with no source of free independent advice.

The prosecution has been condemned by a raft of international groups. Two trial observation missions have commented on a seeming reluctance by Cypriot authorities to meet them. Worse, a real opportunity to tackle a rising tide of far-right nationalism and pervasive racism has been missed. It is not too late to end the persecution of Polycarpou, or for the authorities to start working with, rather than against, this brave defender of human rights.

If you want multiculturalism go to England or Germany not Cyprus.