Disabled people in Cyprus are “invisible” and “deprived of their most basic human rights”, Cyprus Confederation of Disability Organisations (Kysoa) chairwoman Themis Anthopoulou said on Sunday.

Speaking to newspaper Politis, she called for the government to allocate more funding to help disabled people live fulfilling lives, with a new bill which promises “relief” for disabled people set to be put before parliament for a vote.

“The time has come after decades for the state to finally assume its responsibilities towards disabled people. This legislation, to fulfil its stated aim, must restore justice among disabled people,” she said.

She pointed out that only 0.7 per cent of Cyprus’ gross domestic product (GDP) is spent on benefits for disabled people, while the European Union average is more than three times that at 2.2 per cent.

“This means … that disabled people are being led to impoverishment. It means that invisible people are living among us, people who are deprived of their basic human rights, their right to a dignified and independent life, to respect for their inherent dignity,” she said.

She added that this is a “shame for a modern, well-governed European state”.

“We have the second-best economy in the eurozone, a budget surplus of over €1 billion, we give pay rises amounting to €54 million to civil servants, for example, but at the same time, we are second last in the EU for social welfare for people with disabilities.

“These facts brazenly contradict each other and demonstrate that, yes, it is time for the government to assume its constitutional responsibilities towards disabled people in a human-centric manner,” she said.

She went on to say that around half of Cyprus’ disabled people receive no benefit payments at all, and that this is the case in no other EU country, before going on to list examples of cases where people fall through gaps in the social safety net.

“People with amputated limbs are rejected from state welfare because their spouse works. People with multiple sclerosis and rheumatism are rejected from state welfare because they receive meagre disability pensions to the tune of €600,” she began.

She then added that people with intellectual disabilities forfeit their right to any benefits when they take minimum wage jobs, while people with visual impairments or hearing impairments are rejected if they have savings of their own.

Despite these issues, she did express optimism over the new bill, saying that the consultations of which she was a part during its drafting saw “the first time the cost of disabled people’s real needs was recorded”.

She added that in those meetings, she had raised “the need for care based on individual needs for people with moderate disabilities due to chronic developmental diseases” and “the need to support children with disabilities”.

“We also highlighted the need to recognise informal caregivers, the vast majority of whom are parents of children with disabilities,” she said.

She then moved on to the issues facing disabled people in Cypriot society, decrying a “lack of respect and acceptance”.

“The fact that we live in a society which is not inclusive, where if you differ from the ‘standard’ of the whole, you are automatically marginalised, and, yes, the barriers to accessibility in the labour market are another huge gap which we are working … to bridge, together with the labour ministry,” she said.

She added that this gap “inextricably relates to the idea of equal and non-discriminatory social inclusion of disabled people”.