Oroklini incident ‘taken as a racist attack’, House committee hears

Saturday’s attempted eviction of a group of third-country nationals from a block of flats in the Larnaca suburb of Oroklini which turned violent and ended with a 27-year-old man requiring a craniectomy was “taken as a racist attack”, a United Nations high commission for refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson told the House interior committee on Thursday.

The spokesperson said the UNHCR has been concerned about the living standards in the block of flats, “with no electricity, running water, or waste collection”, and added that the issue had been raised “repeatedly” with the authorities.

“Asylum seekers do not choose to live in such conditions, but are driven there by limited employment, the reluctance of landlords to rent to unemployed asylum seekers, and the low allowance provided to them by the social welfare deputy ministry,” the representative said.

They added that after the incident was reported by the media, the UNHCR had spoken to asylum seekers living in the building in question, at that they had reported that such incidents had begun last month.

“They said that on Saturday, a group of people with their faces covered broke windows and doors and asked them to leave, and that they had taken it as a racist attack. We are concerned about such incidents,” she said, before calling for a full investigation into the matter to be launched.

At the same meeting, Larnaca district office representative Stella Kontou explained that eviction orders had first been issued in 2022, but that given that the identities of the tenants were not known, there were no names on the eviction order.

She also said that the police’s assistance had been sought on the matter, but that the police had said they “could not intervene with a court order”. After that, she said, the district office had sought the legal service’s assistance in April last year, but no response was received.

A representative from the social welfare deputy ministry told the committee that the rental allowance offered is €100 per month for single asylum seekers, and that this figure increases for families depending on their composition.

Of the block of flats in Oroklini, they said residents had been receiving subsidies until 2022, when they were cut off.

Then, they said, in May 2022, a visit was made to the building, where it was found that 100 people were living there. The names of the people living there were recorded and they were all moved out, but the representative said that some people then returned.

A police spokesperson then said that they had visited the building in 2023 and found 75 people living there. Of those 75, they said, four were found to have been living in the building without the requisite residence documents and were as such deported.

Non-governmental organisation Kisa’s executive director Doros Polykarpousaid the fact that government subsidies are set at such a low rate means private landlords prefer not to rent their properties to asylum seekers.

On Saturday’s incident, he said it would be “reprehensible” if it turned out that people had “taken the law into their own hands”, and also said the police “did not calculate the risk” of what may happen when they arrived at the scene the first time before leaving.

Committee chairman and Akel MP Aristos Damianou offered fierce criticism for the government for its reaction to the incident.

“For the umpteenth time, and obviously not for the last time, what is mainly recorded is the deafening absence of the state, ministries, departments, services, security forces, and social welfare services … If some people had done their job in a timely matter, what happened last Saturday could have been avoided,” he said.

He added, “the simple conclusion is precisely that there was an absence of the state, a lack of action in a timely manner on the part of the state’s structure, and that when that happens, other forces intrude”.

“The conclusion that I can and have drawn after the entire discussion is that unfortunately, the state was defeated once again, and with it, people who expect their rights to be protected,” he said.

Elam took a different view, however, with MP Sotiris Ioannou describing the block of flats as “an area where prostitution, drug trafficking, and a lot of crime flourished”.

Fellow Elam MP Linos Papayiannis also said that the 35-year-old building manager who was arrested on Saturday was arrested “without any reason or evidence”.

Earlier, a police spokesperson confirmed to the Cyprus Mail that seven people have been arrested so far and arrest warrants have been put out for four more people, all four of whom are Greek Cypriots.

The spokesperson also confirmed that the 35-year-old building manager remains in custody, having been remanded for eight days in court on Sunday.

Three more Cypriot nationals were also arrested in connection with the incident and have since been freed pending the conclusion of police investigations into the matter.

The three other people to have been arrested are all third-country nationals who were found to be living in Cyprus illegally. As such, the police spokesperson confirmed that procedures are underway for their deportation.

The spokesperson also said the 27-year-old who required a craniectomy, a type of brain surgery where a part of one’s skull is removed by a surgeon to relieve pressure, remains in a critical condition.

On Monday, Oroklini deputy mayor Neophytos Fakontis said the block of flats had been an issue for a while, adding that local authorities have been “sounding the alarm since 2017 about the unacceptable situation” in the building.

According to newspaper Politis, he said the building’s inhabitants, who are primarily of African origin, were living “in miserable conditions, without water and electricity, amidst piles of garbage and filth”.

He said a decree stipulating the suspension of the building’s operations had been pending at the Larnaca district office for four years as it did not have the relevant approval certificate to operate, but that as the office did not issue the decree, the police were powerless to intervene, and the building’s inhabitants remained in place.

Despite this, he said, the building’s mains water supply had been cut off eight years ago due to accumulated debts.

He went on to say that he had written to the audit office complaining of a “waste of public money” on the building, adding that the building’s residents were paying €125 per month each but that “eight to ten people” were living in each flat.

He added that the site had been sold to a private company last year with the aim of developing it, and that around a month ago, the company had informed the local authorities that the building was to be evacuated so that construction work could begin.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, the 35-year-old went to the building in an attempt to evict 15 third-country nationals who were living in the building after having obtained an eviction order, during which it turned violent.

Police were then called in with tear gas then being deployed against the third-country nationals, who had allegedly attacked the police.