“CYPRUS during the last two decades is not just a destination but also a transit country for women being systematically channelled into the prostitution market,” wrote ombudswoman Eliana Nicolaou, in her investigation into the “regime of entry and employment of foreign women described as artistes”. Nicolaou’s 75-page report said the number of registered cabarets and nightclubs operating as cabarets had doubled from 1990 to 2002, as had the number of ‘artistes’ employed – with about 2,000 workers entering the country every year.
There is nothing new in her report, but it is important that a high-ranking state official has for once taken a clear stand on this disgraceful state of affairs that authorities are only too happy to ignore.
Never before has a top state official openly referred to the complicity of the immigration authorities who Nicolaou said are “fully aware about what is really happening”. And never has a top state official been so disparaging about the state-imposed regulations governing the employment of these women and about the way the immigration authorities invariably side with the employers.
While there was satisfactory legislation against the white flesh trade, the report said, it was not just individuals who had failed to comply with the law – state authorities “allow and tolerate the trafficking in human beings for the purpose of sexual exploitation”. For instance, she wrote, there is no legislation governing the entry and employment of artistes that is subject to internal regulations. Current laws are tailored to the needs of cabaret owners and are always interpreted to their advantage by the authorities. The government-approved contracts do not constitute an agreement between two equals, but instead give unprecedented rights to the employer. There is utter contempt for the notion of the authorities protecting the weak and disenfranchised.
As long as a woman is non-Cypriot and over 18, in the eyes of the authorities she qualifies to work as an artiste. What is most scandalous is that these women are even denied the rights that other foreign workers take for granted. They are not allowed to change employers or to take up different jobs. Some are forced into prostitution while all of them are deprived basic freedoms, such as choosing how to spend their free time. Many are locked up in apartments and when not working have to be accompanied by a minder wherever they go. And if the artistes do not play ball, they are reported to the immigration authorities who deport them – no questions asked.
Now that the Ombudswoman has lambasted the authorities. will anything be done about this state-tolerated exploitation of disempowered women? If past experience is anything to go by, we should not be too hopeful. The issue enters public debate every couple of years for a fortnight or so, moral outrage is expressed by politicians and it is then forgotten – without anything being done – until the next time it is raised.
It is to be hoped the Ombudswoman’s intervention would make a difference because this is an unacceptable way for a democratic state to behave towards any individual. Admittedly, this type of exploitation of women takes place in most societies, but it is only in Cyprus that the state authorities not only condone but legitimise it.
