The Standing Rapporteur on the missing persons in Cyprus, MEP Isabel Santos met with relatives of the missing during her visit on the island on Saturday.

Santos held meetings with Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot relatives of the missing persons on Saturday morning.

Among the issues discussed, was the refusal of the Turkish Cypriot authorities to submit data that will help identify missing persons, Cybc reported.

On Monday, she will hold meetings with the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides, the President of the House of Representatives Annita Demetriou, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Constantinos Kombos and the Chairperson and Members of the House Standing Committee on Refugees-Enclaved-Missing-Adversely Affected Persons.

Santos will also meet the three members of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) in the old Nicosia airport (UN protected area) and right after she will visit the adjacent CMP Anthropological Laboratory. Later on, she will give a press conference outside the CMP Anthropological Laboratory.

A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974.

According to statistical data published on the CMP website by August 1, 2022 out of 2002 missing persons 1,185 were exhumed and 1,027 were identified. Out of 1,510 Greek Cypriot missing persons 735 were identified and 775 are still missing. Out of 492 Turkish Cypriot missing persons 292 were identified and 200 are still missing.