Funds to locate missing persons given a boost

Cyprus will increase its contribution to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) and intensify the excavations to locate missing persons, Government Spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Tuesday.

Speaking after a Council of Ministers meeting, he said the body had approved an increase from 2024 to €300,000, up from €175,000.

The CMP began excavations and exhumations in 2006. According to the official list of missing persons of Cyprus, their total number was 2,002 (492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots).

Until today, he said, CMP teams have carried out more than 1,500 excavations throughout the island, and the remains of more than 1,205 missing persons have been exhumed.

In total, 1,034 missing persons have been identified (742 Greek Cypriots and 292 Turkish Cypriots).

Furthermore, he said that in the Anthropological Laboratory of the CMP, 210 cases are under examination, while in the excavations list there are another 90 cases that are either ready or almost ready.

He also said that the annual budget of the CMP amounts to €3.2 million, of which €2.6 million, or 80 per cent, comes from the European Union.

“The determination of the Government and the President of the Republic personally to achieve the goal of ascertaining the fate of all the missing persons, remains unchanged and we will continue to strengthen our efforts and actions towards this goal,” Letymbiotis said.