Rude official investigated after asking why elderly parents needed IDs

A district officer is being investigated after she allegedly asked a woman why she was bothering to renew her elderly parents’ IDs as they were bedridden, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said on Wednesday.

The minister described the allegations as “unacceptable” after actress Niovi Charalambous described the incident in a Facebook post.

Charalambous said she was met with an attitude that smacked of “unwillingness, bureaucracy and a lot of anger”.

She highlighted her parents were unable to physically go renew their IDs so she desperately tried to understand what she needed to do for them.

“I don’t want the district office’s pity, or the staff’s pity. I just want to get my work done.”

Charalambous said a senior officer at the district office told her “well, if your mum is bedridden, what do you need an ID for?”

The actress said she could not fathom that someone could be so condescending and lacking in humanity.

“This is our European Cyprus.”

Ioannou reacted in his own post on social media highlighting there is a service under the district office which visits bedridden elderly individuals and children, who may be in the hospital.

“This approach and response for a member of staff is unacceptable and I have given orders to investigate the matter.”