|
Cyprus:
New crisis for
protesting Kurdish asylum seekers
8.7.2006
By Jean Christou
|
|
|
|
A group of beleaguered
ethnic Kurdish asylum seekers from Iraq were facing
a new crisis last night, with the threat of being
turned out of their hotel after the government
ceased to pay for their rooms.
According to Doros Polycarpou, president of the
immigrant support group KISA the eight men were part
of the group of asylum seekers who went on hunger
strike at Eleftheria Square in May, and who later
demonstrated at the Red Cross after two weeks of
protest achieved nothing.
After the Red Cross incident the asylum seekers were
promised their demands for the right to work without
limitations, government housing, access to benefits
where the right to work is refused, medical and
pharmaceutical care, an end to police mistreatment,
an end to deportations to countries which persecute
them, and genuine examinations by an independent
body of each asylum application.
The problems were supposed to have been dealt with
within a week.
Polycaropu said yesterday that the men were given
shelter at a Nicosia hotel but some had been given
welfare cheques only on Thursday, and the remainder
yesterday, a month and a half later than promised.
However they were then told that their hotel would
no longer be paid for as they had gotten their
cheques, which only amounted to £170 each and they
had to move out immediately even though they had
nowhere to go.
But those who got their cheques only yesterday were
being asked to pay by the manager, who
understandably wanted his money and was worried
about who was going to pay his bill, Polycarpou
said.
He said four of the men had found a place that was
going to cost them £100 a month each plus a deposit
of £100. But the four remaining at the hotel still
had nowhere to go by last night.
Polycarpou said he had contacted the Interior
Ministry. “The response is that they will not take
any more responsibility for them,” he said.
“We’ve asked if it’s possible for them to be given
another few days. The Interior Ministry has been
paying their hotel for one and a half months and now
for the sake of a few days, they won’t give them a
chance to find somewhere else to live.”
Polycarpou said he did not know how the situation
was going to play out last night and today. “All I
know now is that they are in their room. The police
came and left. It’s a bad situation. I don’t know
what they plan to do.”
cyprus-mail com
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 