Our View: Government clampdown on Chlorakas unlikely to work

After the last week’s scuffles between migrants from the infamous Ayios Nikolaous apartment complex in Chlorakas and police, President Nikos Christodoulides decided to intervene. On Monday he held a meeting at the presidential palace, attended by the attorney-general and several ministers, to tackle a problem that has been brewing for years, because the authorities did not want to deal with it.

The meeting decided the immediate execution and enforcement of the decree issued by the Paphos district officer in November 2021, said government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis. When a state official issues a decree, why does the president have to intervene for it to be executed and enforced, more than a year later? What have the authorities been doing all this time?

When the decree was issued ordering the vacating of the apartment complex, in which an estimated 600 asylum seekers, refugees and their families lived, because it was unfit for human habitation, the owner/administrator appealed against the decision. The administrative court rejected the appeal in March 2022, but for 17 months the authorities did nothing to execute the decree. Only after the scuffles that prompted the president’s intervention will the execution of the decree proceed.

It was announced on Monday that by Friday the names of all the residents of the apartment complex would be recorded by the migration and asylum services in the presence of officials from the deputy ministry for welfare. Asylum seekers would be sent to the Kophinou centre, where their applications will be examined as matters of urgency; they will also be given the option to leave Cyprus of their own volition.

Those who have permits to be here will be given two weeks to find alternative accommodation while the vulnerable and families will be provided with support from the welfare ministry. Meanwhile those who are illegally in Cyprus will be arrested and deported, at least in theory. What is the likelihood that illegal migrants will appear before the officials to give their details?

Another question is where the legal migrants living in the complex will find accommodation they can afford? They have been living for years in flats without water and electricity because the rent is cheap and would have moved out if they could afford it. To suggest they could find somewhere else they can afford in a fortnight is not just unrealistic, it is fantasy.

The absence of easy answers is one of the reasons the authorities showed such astonishing tolerance to the owner/administrator of the complex, who was renting out premises, considered unfit for human habitation by the state. It suited the authorities that migrants had cheap accommodation, despite the appalling living conditions.

We suspect the only reason the government has decided, finally, to enforce the decree is because of the pressure from the residents of the area, but we doubt the problem will be solved any time soon.