By Anthony O. Miller
SIX Filipinas yesterday filed formal complaints with Cyprus Police against the owner and the manager of a Limassol cabaret who, they say, threatened to kill them if they did not prostitute themselves with the club’s customers.
The six, whose ages range from 22 to 34, fled Limassol on Tuesday and sought sanctuary in the Nicosia law offices of Yiannakis Erotocritou, who is also Consul of the Philippines, in fear for their lives.
He placed the women in a safe-house, pending their filing of police reports and the resolution of their work-permit problems with the Migration Department.
The six women said their employer cheated them out of all wages — their contracts call for £10 per day in base pay — and of commissions on drinks they cajoled the cabaret’s customers into buying.
They said their bosses also cheated them out of the £20 they were to have received from each £65 the cabaret’s customers paid the cabaret for being allowed to take the women home for sex.
Besides being cheated of all earnings, the women claimed they were forced to work seven days a week, without ever a day off, throughout their time in Cyprus. Some have been here 90 days.
Additionally, they said they were required to clean the cabaret each morning after returning from their night’s work with their “customers”, before being allowed to take to their own beds for sleep.
Furthermore, they claimed, their bosses deducted from their “accounts” all the costs associated with bringing them to Cyprus, including Migration Office permit fees, costs of doctor’s examination and X-rays, and the like.
The six women are liable for deportation, since refusing to continue working in the Limassol cabaret constitutes a breach of their contract with its owner, on the basis of which they were issued work and residency permits.
However, Erotocritou indicated his arrangement with Migration Officer Christodoulos Nicolaides had temporarily stayed any imminent threat of deportation.
Erotocritou said the women would complete their report with the police before seeking to resolve their Migration Department difficulties.
