Cabinet green lights aid to Ukrainian refugees

Ukrainian refugees in Cyprus will be issued with a card giving them access to accommodation, food, and medical care as part of the temporary protection regime following Tuesday’s approval of assistance measures by cabinet.

The decision comes against a backdrop of a groundswell of sympathy for Ukrainians, though some community leaders have also highlighted the need for help to assimilate the refugees. Observers have also pointed to the cool reception given to irregular migrants who make their way across the buffer zone to seek asylum.

The deputy ministry of social welfare and tourism are coordinating to accommodate over 8,000 Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Cyprus in the last two months, Interior Minister Nicos Nouris told the Cybc on Tuesday.

Following the country’s invasion by Russian troops on February 24, over 6,000 Ukrainian refugees arrived in the island, the minister said, on top of an additional 2,300 who had arrived since February 1.

“There are over 8,000 or even, as we estimate, over 9,000 Ukrainian refugees in the republic,” Nouris said.

Only 873 have applied for temporary protection to the asylum service which, according to Nouris, was immediately granted to them.

“But we have daily arrivals of about 100 to 180 Ukrainian refugees over the last week,” he added.

Nouris explained that efforts are being made to identify the right accommodation and distribute the refugees across the island so that “not everyone is placed in the same area”.

On Tuesday, cabinet adopted the recommendations of Friday’s inter-ministerial committee meeting on the management of Ukrainian refugees.

As per the European Commission’s decision, a temporary protection card will be issued which will provide access to food, housing, health care, education, employment and benefits, government spokeswoman Niovi Parisinou said in a written statement after the meeting.

Health care will be available at all state hospitals that are registered in the national health scheme Gesy, Nouris explained.

“The competent ministers and deputy ministers have been authorised to take all appropriate actions,” Parisinou added.

Cypriot authorities have also established a 24-hour channel of communication with the Ukrainian embassy in Nicosia to facilitate assistance to refugees from the war-torn country, Nouris added.

“Collaboration is at an excellent level,” he said.

Nouris explained how the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine comes as an additional burden to the island, which in the last 15 days has also received 1,600 migrants from third countries.

“It all starts and ends with the fact that the number of migrants we receive is more than the returns…more than what we can manage,” the minister said, admitting there is a problem in many communities.

He added Paphos communities of Droushia and Emba have send him letters requesting the ministry to issue relevant protocols that will ban additional migrants from residing in the areas which are already burdened with a large number of migrants.

Seeing the influx, many residents want to provide aid, either by making cash donations or donating clothes and other essential items, the treasurer of the New Testament Community Church who coordinates the aid to refugees Brian Shubrook told the Cyprus Mail.

However, most “are totally unaware of where they should direct their enquiries,” Shubrook said, adding that for donations in Paphos, people can contact the New Testament Community Church or Brian Shubrook directly on 97653089 or via email at [email protected].

The problem in Emba started as efforts were made to remove migrants who were illegally residing in the neighbouring village of Chlorakas where there are two interior ministry decrees in force, the head of Emba community council Antonis Nikiforou told Cybc. The decrees ban the settlement of additional migrants in the area and provide for the closure of a specific section of an apartment complex where hundreds of migrants were staying.

But, according to Nikiforou, the decisions simply shift the problem to his village, adding there are usually more than five migrants staying in the same residence.

Paralimni’s mayor Theodoros Pirillis, made a distinction between illegal migrants and refugees, while highlighting the importance to protect the tourism product.

He said Ukrainian refugees should be dispersed in the local community to better assimilate with the locals.

However, he noted they should be placed in rental accommodations instead of hotels as authorities have planned and called on hoteliers to “be patient and not seek an easy profit”.

“We don’t want in any case not to offer [help], but at the same time we must protect our tourism product,” he said.

Pirillis claimed that people will not choose to holiday in areas where there are migrants, explaining that tourism is connected with “luxury” whereas immigration is “misery and pain”.

He denied racism claims against him, saying he has “many friends who are non-Cypriot” and that he himself was an immigrant once and subjected to discrimination.