Foreign students in Cyprus from the end of October 2022 will be allowed to take on work Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou said on Wednesday.

Speaking to CyBC in the morning, the minister said that this is not a new decree as the labour ministry has issued similar ones in the past.

The minister said that the people will only be allowed to work in certain sectors, and mostly at jobs that “Cypriots don’t want to do.”

According to the decree, students will be allowed to work in certain industries only, including at petrol stations as attendants, and in the health sector as caretakers and cleaners.

People will also be able to work as ward assistants at clinics provided that they meet the requirements of the health ministry and speak a basic level of Greek.

The ministry added that students will be allowed to take on occasional domestic work and in bakeries, animal feed plants, waste recycling, and as a night shift worker at manufacturing industries.

In the field of agriculture, students will be able to work as farm workers and in the fishing industry.

Students can also work as building cleaners, sewage workers, advertising mail distributors and in food delivery.

At hotels, the ministry said that people will be able to work as kitchen assistants, cleaners, waiters, receptionists and bartenders, while at restaurants people will be able to do similar tasks.

A previous decree provided that only third-country students, who were in the Republic of Cyprus at the end of January 2022, were entitled to employment, under conditions and in specific sectors.

In view of this and in order to allow students, who came to study in Cyprus this year, employers’ organisations requested a review of the decree.

The issue was also discussed at the first meeting of the Labor Consultative Body, chaired by Panayiotou at the end of May and a few days later, on June 7, 2023, a new decree was published in the official gazette of the Republic that changes the date from which foreign students can be employed.