Justice Minister Costas Fitiris on Thursday suggested that food delivery riders each be given a “red button”, which they can press in the event of them being attacked by members of the public, to immediately inform the police of an attack.

He also moved to stress that the motive behind the frequent assaults of delivery drivers is not racism, saying that “we found that there are also independent distributors who have a lot of money on them, and most of the time, I estimate that the motives are robbery and not racism”.

On the matter of the “red button”, he said that “there cannot be a police officer everywhere”, before briefly outlining the plan.

“It takes some time to implement, provided that the companies agree, so that the delivery rider presses this button and the police can respond in a short amount of time. The police must act in a short amount of time, provided that there is timely information from the victims,” he said.

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Asked whether the attacks may be linked to drug trafficking, he said that the issue is “being investigated”, before adding that “there have been so many arrests recently, we do not know where to put the detainees”.

“Arrests have been made, syndicates have been dismantled, others are being created, either individually or in an organised manner, but our job is to keep hunting, and to strike at the root of evil,” he said.

Lottides pours doubt on ‘red button’ plan

Meanwhile, human rights commissioner Maria Stylianou Lottides said of the most recent spate of attacks that she had written to police chief Themistos Arnaoutis, saying that while she appreciates that the police have already taken measures, “the repetition of the attacks makes it necessary to systematically evaluate their effectiveness”.

She also expressed doubt regarding Fitiris’ plan for the rollout of “red buttons”, saying that “responsibility for workers’ safety belongs to the competent authorities and the delivery companies, and cannot be transferred to the delivery riders themselves through instructions for them to protect themselves”.

Additionally, she called on the police to conduct “an immediate and comprehensive investigation” into the latest round of attacks and the possible motives behind them, as well as conducting a “review of policing plans” and a “mapping of high-risk areas”.

She said that the police must also ensure that there are “accessible reporting channels for victims”, including that “removal of language barriers”, as well as a “systematic recording of cases to identify recuring patterns of attacks”.