Government to review criteria on foreign workers

THE government is the review criteria for allowing foreigners to work on the island, Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas said after a top-level meeting on the issue yesterday.

“It was decided to set up a technical committee of representatives from relevant organisations who will study the criteria as they are today and make the clarifications needed so that the Labour department service responsible for granting work permits can apply these criteria more easily,” the minister said.

He said the technical committee’s review of criteria for granting work permits would be completed by the end of the month.

Moushiouttas said the technical committee would also be reviewing government policy on employment of foreigners.

About 24,000 foreigners currently have permits to work on the island, while thousands are known to work illegally. Workers’ unions routinely push the government to curb the number of foreign workers.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.