Racially motivated crimes are on the rise in Cyprus, the House human rights committee heard on Monday

Deputy police chief Ioannis Georgiou told the committee that there were a total of 51 attacks on food delivery drivers recorded over the last two years, of which 28 were recorded last year and 23 were recorded in 2023.

Of those incidents, he said 17 remain under investigation, with 42 people having been arrested and charged in connection with them.

In addition, he said, a total of 54 “incidents with a racist motive” were recorded last year, with 30 such incidents producing criminal proceedings.

He said that trials are ongoing for 13 of those cases, with two convictions having already been secured.

He then moved onto the matter of crimes committed against LGBT people, explaining that 14 such incidents were reported to the police in 2014, with that figure rising to 17 last year. In 2023, eight criminal cases resulted from those reports, while that figure rose to nine last year.

These figures were remarked upon by Stephanos Evangelides, of non-governmental organisation Accept – LGBTI Cyprus.

He told the committee that ahead of the planned LGBT pride march which is set to take place in Nicosia on Saturday, “groups of youths dressed in black were spotted moving around Nicosia’s old town, asking passersby if they were or if they knew LGBT people”.

On this matter, MP Alexandra Attalides, who belongs to Volt, said that it is “inconceivable” that announcements on this matter have not been made by organs of the state.

“If anything happens, the state will be responsible,” she said.

Evangelides also criticised the government’s stance regarding hate crimes committed against the LGBT community, highlighting the lighting of  an Easter bonfire, known as a “lambradjia”, adorned with placards with “LGBT” written on them earlier in the year.

This incident, he said “was not condemned by the government, nor by any political parties other than Volt and Akel”.

Committee chairwoman and Akel MP Irene Charalambides pointed out that in light of the arrest of a police officer in connection with the attack on an Omonia fan club in the Nicosia suburb of Lakatamia last week, “there are also police officers who participate in violent incidents”.

This, she said, is “a fact which does not inspire a sense of security for victims to proceed with complaints”.

In response, Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis said that “the current government and the current minister are not responsible for the pathologies of the police”.

“A member of the police may have specific opinions but may never express them and must be a completely responsible person,” he added.

The conversation then turned to the matter of race-based incidents at schools, with an education ministry representative telling the committee that during the 2023-24 school year, exactly 547 racist incidents were recorded in the island’s schools.

The spokesperson said that since 2016, “every school has been obliged to implement an anti-racist policy … with the aim of addressing this type of behaviour”.

After the meeting, Charalambides said that the government “must prove a zero-tolerance stance with its statements”.

“Only with punishment will the rest realise that they do not have the right to disrupt, to erode society with such rhetoric which offends human dignity,” she added.

Disy MP Rita Superman said the increase in racist violence in Cyprus “indicates that the phenomenon is taking up more and more space in society”, and added that such incidents are occurring with more frequency “despite the actions and measures mentioned by [Hartsiotis]”.

She also claimed that there is now an “organised gang of Indians selling protection services to delivery drivers”, though no further information on this claim has yet been brought to light.

Additionally, she said that the violence carried out against delivery drivers in recent years “shows that the measures taken were not enough in terms of suppressing the phenomenon”.

“More dynamic action is expected from the authorities regarding racist violence in general,” she said.

Attalides also spoke after the meeting, saying the government “allows violent events such as those which occurred in Chlorakas and Limassol in 2023” to go ahead, “either because it is in its interests to use certain parties, or because it is not interested”.

She added that the government at the same time “uses violence against those who demonstrate peacefully”.