Laws regulating refugee housing set to pass before summer recess

Lawmakers said on Tuesday they want to pass a package of bills relating to the issuing of title deeds to refugees or people classed as enclaved before the summer recess.

The matter concerns residences or plots of land used by these people but for which no title deed has been issued.

The government has tabled a number of bills, with MPs also coming up with their own legislative proposals.

One of the disputed provisions relates to issuing title deeds for small residences, located in the south, given to enclaved persons. Another provision would require five years to pass after the issuing of a title deed before owners have the right to sell or transfer the property. And another clause provides for on-site inspections to verify that the title beneficiary is actually residing in the property.

Chair of the House refugee committee Nikos Kettiros said that the issue of the small residences concerns single-bedroom houses, and that title deeds should be issued for them “to offset, but also to recognise, what these people have suffered living in the occupied areas.”

On the clause regarding the passage of five years before a displaced person has the right to transfer or sell a property, the MP said this would be removed from the text of the bill.

And regarding the on-site inspections, to establish if someone is currently living in the property so that he or she is eligible for a title deed, Kettiros said this provision would be removed as well. This clause is unfair, he noted, because a person may not be residing in the property in question since the 1970s, either because of ill health or old age.

Another issue pertains to small land plots assigned to refugees on state land.

“In certain cases, about 40, government services and the interior ministry had in the 1970s designated state land for the construction of residences by displaced persons – but because these residences were not classed as settlements, the state does not grant title deeds.”