The interior ministry is open to new proposals to improve refugee policy, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said on Monday during an open table discussion organised by Akel.

He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to modernising support for the Cypriots displaced in the events of 1974 and addressing the evolving challenges they face.

He emphasised the objective to uphold “meritocracy and equality among the displaced” through reforms to Turkish Cypriot property management, preventing “exploitation and abuse” and establishing “a fair and transparent framework for evaluating beneficiaries.”

Akel representatives acknowledged reforms but urged broader changes.

Party MP George Loucaides argued that “refugee policy today needs a radical refoundation, not piecemeal corrections,” calling for a “unified, fair and socially sensitive housing policy.”

Among the Akel proposals mentioned by Loucaides are housing and rent subsidies, reconstruction programmes, and efforts to revitalise refugee settlements.

He stressed that the “definitive and permanent solution to the refugee problem is through the reunification and liberation of our homeland.”

Until then, “the state must live up to its responsibility towards the displaced, to the people who kept alive the memory, dignity and right of return.”

House refugee committee chairman Nikos Kettiros called for “institutional solutions” rather than “a relationship of dependence,” urging efficiency and transparency in refugee policy.

He also revealed that the issue of the huge wave of sales and auctions of refugee houses in the settlements will be discussed at the committee on Tuesday.

Union of Cyprus municipalities chairman Andreas Vyras said the refugee crisis created an inequality “which remains present in society more than half a century later,” stressing that it “must be eliminated by refugee policy” through cooperation across all levels of government.

“Fifty one years later, the refugee world of Cyprus has had enough of symbolism and needs substantial policies,” he added.