COMPLAINTS made to the Ombudswoman during the year 2005 noted a significant increase in every single social and state sector, according the office’s annual report for the year.
“2005 was a difficult and therefore interesting year for the Ombudswoman, who again found herself faced with an extremely large amount of complaints and the same limited and insufficient means to deal with them,” read the introduction to the report, which Eliana Nicolaou presented to House President Demetris Christofias yesterday.
According to Nicolaou’s report, the Ombudswoman’s Office in 2005 received 3,185 complaints, the highest number since she was appointed in March 1991 and 28.2 per cent higher than in 2004. In total, the Ombudswoman has received 18,851 complaints since she was appointed.
Besides 2005’s complaints, a further 1,493 were pending from previous years and another 10 were complaints that had been assessed by the Office but returned by plaintiffs for revaluation. So the total of complaints was 4,688.
Out of these, 2,740 were assessed, 31.5 per cent more than the year before. More than half of the complaints were made in Nicosia, 24 per cent were made in Limassol, 11 per cent in Larnaca and 10 per cent in Paphos. One per cent of the complaints were made from abroad.
The largest amount of complaints concerned employment, educational and labour issues (20.5 per cent), followed by immigrants and foreigners (13.5 per cent), procedures and delays (7.1 per cent) and financial issues and taxes (6.2 per cent).
There was also an increase in complaints regarding violations of human rights and the availability of health services.
As with previous years, a huge chunk of complaints were related to the Interior Ministry’s departments and services (28 per cent), “which is in part normal, given that it has to do with departments such as the Town Planning Department, the Land Registry Department, the Immigration Department, etc. or services, such as local authorities, which have increased contact with the public.”
Out of the 946 complaints made about the Interior Ministry, the vast majority – 326 concerned the Immigration Department. The Town-planning and Land Registry Departments came a distant second, both receiving around 140 complaints each.
The police, central prison and health sector were among those investigated in concern to the violation of people’s rights.
Special attention was also paid to social and cultural rights, such as the right to work for HIV/AIDS carriers and former drug users, patients’ right to their medical records and pupils’ rights in school.
In many cases members of the public turned to the Ombudswoman because their personal rights, personality, freedom and safety had come under attack from police, either during checks or while in remand.
“It has unfortunately been noted that in some cases, the police’s tactics tend to maintain the suspicion between the public and police,” said Nicolaou’s report.
Describing Central Prison inmates as “the most vulnerable sector of society”, Nicolaou said that despite her previous annual reports repeatedly pointing out the serious shortcomings in the prison’s system and suggestions to improve it, “prisons unfortunately remain areas of desocialisation and social exclusion”.
Nicolaou said prisoners were mainly immigrants, drug users and/or traffickers, people with psychological disturbances, delinquent teens and persons on the verge of poverty and social exclusion.
“Constructive behaviour towards these people and their re-integration in society must begin from the moment they enter prison,” said the Ombudswoman, adding that many prisoners who are released, return to society only to be faced with discrimination, resulting in them living in a different kind of social exclusion or returning to prison.
An especially sore point regarding prisoners was immigrants, who are kept in holding cells for long amounts of time until they are deported. And because deportation orders are issued by the Immigration Department, they are held in remand without first going through trial.
Nicolaou added the holding areas were a disgrace and definitely not appropriate for accommodating anyone for long periods of time.
The number of complaints she received from foreigners during 2005 was 431, 43 per cent more than the year before.
“The largest number of complaints concerned deportations (132), followed by complaints regarding asylum (82), residency permits (43) and the evaluation of economic migrants’ applications to change employers (59)”.
Regarding land and development issues, the Ombudswoman received 436 complaints that mainly concerned relations between the public and local authorities. Compared to 2004, complaints had risen by 27 per cent.
A total of 262 complaints were submitted involving actions or omissions by municipalities.
In the Education sector, Nicolaou received complaints from pupils made against their school or the Education Ministry, complaints by teachers against the ministry and complaints by the ministry’s staff.
Finally the Ombudswoman examined 179 cases regarding the protection of social rights.
The cases mainly concerned social security and provisions such as social benefits, public aid and scholarships.
