A MINISTERIAL Committee yesterday decided to extend by another three months an August moratorium freezing the issue of work permits to foreigners.
The three-member committee was made up of the Interior, Justice and Labour Ministers.
Speaking after the closed meeting, Interior Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou said the exact number of foreigners working illegally in Cyprus could not be calculated, and that this was due to issue remaining largely unchecked for the last 13 years.
“When I asked the Immigration Officer to give me the information, he was unable to do so. There are people who used three different names each, so the number (of illegal workers) could appear as 10,000 and be only 3,000 in reality. For example if the name was Mustafa, it would sometimes be written with a ‘u’ and at other times with ‘ou’. So this information is not representative.”
Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas admitted that the illegal employment of foreign workers contributed to unemployment on the island.
“The needs of the economy called for the presence of (legal) foreign workers and their presence here does not cause problems either to the economy or add to unemployment. Illegal workers, however, definitely do contribute to unemployment.”
Justice Minister Nicos Koshis, meanwhile, repeated his view that work permits should be provided to specific individuals, and not to employers who then bring in different workers on the same permit at different times.
Koshis said 120 illegal workers were being deported from the island every week.
“Officially I can’t say, unofficially I can say that our coast is well guarded and it has become increasing difficult for them to come in. Month by month, the illegal workers should become less and less.”
The Committee also upheld its decision to lower the number of foreign waitresses allowed to work at bars, and said the government Statistics and Research Department was investigating the number of Black Sea Russians being employed in Cyprus, and under what conditions they were working.
Cabaret and bar owners, under the umbrella of shopkeepers’ union Povek, last week appealed to Koshis to be more lenient over the amount of foreign women they were allowed to employ.
