HOW IRONIC that as we near our first birthday in the European Union, our public officials appear to outdo themselves in gratuitous chauvinism. Earlier this week, deputy chief of police Sotiris Charalambous made a point of underlining that 35 per cent of crime was committed by foreigners and that bogus asylum seekers were scamming their way to jobs and benefits in Cyprus. Then on Wednesday, Justice Minister Doros Theodorou said foreigners and Turkish Cypriots were implicated in several cases of serious crime, adding that since the checkpoints had opened “Cyprus has never been the same”.
Sometimes it seems that all our leaders have picked up from the European Union are the frequently-mouthed mantras of “unity in diversity” or “universal respect for human rights”. Yet why bother when in the same breath they utter such inflammatory remarks?
Theodorou’s comment was totally out of place; it came during discussion of the increasing number of bomb and arson attacks, the vast majority of which are over personal differences and therefore highly unlikely to have anything to do with foreigners. And where does the comment about the opening of the checkpoints fit in? What is he suggesting? That we should close them, when for years we were accusing the Turks of preventing freedom of movement?
The deputy chief of police may have been on slightly firmer ground; at least he was quoting a statistic. It is a fact that foreigners are responsible for a lot of the petty crime on the island. But there is no point in ramming home the fact without suggesting solutions. He could have said: ‘a lot of foreigners are driven to crime; we need to understand why, to look at better housing, employment and integration opportunities to assist dislocated communities.’
But the government has never made such suggestions or even considered the issue in this way. Why bother when you can just turn the outsider into a scapegoat? Bluntly, what Theodorou and Charalambous are saying is: ‘Yes, crime is rising, we know you are worried about your homes and your safety. But don’t blame the government, don’t blame the police, just blame the Turks, the foreigners, the bogus asylum seekers.’
Unfortunately, this is not going to solve the problem, only make it worse. By whipping up mistrust of foreigners, the government is only likely to drive communities further into the ghetto. Sorry to break the news, but foreigners, Turkish Cypriots and asylum seekers are here to stay. If we close our borders to immigration, our economy will collapse under the sudden labour shortage; if we close the checkpoints to our Turkish Cypriot compatriots, we can kiss goodbye to the rare shreds of credibility we may retain on the Cyprus problem; and if we refuse to accept asylum applications we can tear up our international treaty commitments and just walk out of the European Union. It’s up to us to decide.
