Caritas Europa: Migrant crisis in Cyprus
In Cyprus, migrants are often at the bottom of the government’s list of priorities, suffering great hardship, social exclusion and are well below the poverty line. However, one in five of the population in Cyprus is a migrant. Out of them, most of the asylum seekers are coming from African and Arab countries, Syria in particular. This is the story of one of them:
“I am D from the Middle East. I came to Cyprus 25 years ago. I escaped from my country because of religious persecution. After obtaining refugee status in Cyprus, I worked running a restaurant and eventually had a construction building company.
“However, when the crisis hit Cyprus in 2012, I suffered financial losses and lost my business. I moved to another EU country looking for a job. The problem was that I didn’t have a Cypriot passport. The travel document – usually the only ID document granted to recognised refugees in Cyprus – entitles me to visit an EU country but not to work there. After 3 months I was sent back to Cyprus.
“I suffered a stroke and a mental breakdown which left me half paralysed and unable to work. When discharged from the hospital, I had nowhere to go and was placed in an old people’s home. After a month there, I was given 400 euros and forced to leave. I found myself homeless and in a poor medical state. I found help at the Caritas Cyprus Migrant Centre shelter in Nicosia and 5 months later I was able to move out into my own accommodation. After several requests to the government, I was eventually given welfare benefits.”
