Almost 200 sites which were listed by the civil defence as evacuation shelters are unsuitable for use or no longer exist, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said on Wednesday.

He said that inspections were carried out at the 2,480 sites which are listed as shelters, and that it was found that 194 either “are not suitable” or “the buildings no longer exist”, and that therefore, they were “declassified as shelters”.

Additionally, he said, it was found that a further 288 shelters are now not accessible to the public, and that they are now exclusively for the use of the owners or tenants of the buildings in which they are located.

“For unsuitable and privately used shelters, the process of removing them from the SafeCY application has begun, and will be completed within the next few days,” he said.

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He also noted that it was found during inspections that “a number of shelters need to have items moved or to be cleaned so that they are ready to accommodate people”.

On this matter, he said that his ministry is “in communication” with the owners of the buildings in which they are located, “so as to assist in the movement of items and the cleaning of the premises”.

“The policy implemented from 1999 to 2013 … for the creation of shelters in existing private spaces presents significant weaknesses,” he said, adding that after 2013, successive governments “gave priority to public spaces, such as municipal underground car parks, hotels, office spaces, and suchlike”.

As such, he said, the actual number of shelters on the island is expected to decrease over time, but “with this new methodology, namely finding larger spaces, a larger percentage of the population will be covered”.

He said that on this front, meetings have been held with district governments, municipalities, and village councils, and that pursuant to those meetings, “public spaces have been identified [which are] suitable for the temporary accommodation of a large number of people”.

“These spaces are gradually being added to the SafeCY application. That is, in the next two or three days, we expect the removal of the shelters which are not to be used to be completed, as well as some things regarding precise locations where some problems were observed, to be corrected, and we are gradually starting to add the new spaces we have already found,” he said.

He added that more meetings are being held with the aim of finding new possible shelter sites, with meetings having been held on Tuesday with representatives of business associations, hoteliers, supermarkets, and the church.

These meetings, he said, took place with the aim of “clarifying the possibility of granting large underground spaces which, on the one hand, will not require any significant preparation and, on the other hand, will be able to accommodate a significantly large number of people”.