Effort to end sex discrimination on refugees

DISCUSSIONS began in at parliamentary committee level yesterday to allow the children of Greek Cypriot mothers to gain refugee status if they were displaced from the north in 1974.

Currently the status of refugee can only be granted to the children of male Cypriots, which discriminates against the children of women who fled the north in 1974.

Refugee status entitles those that hold it to special housing grants, among other things.

Now, nearly 33 years after the invasion, two deputies have tabled the issue for discussion at the House.

DISY’s Lefteris Christoforou and DIKO’s Andreas Angelides told the Refugee Committee yesterday that they had wide support among all the political parties for the change.

Christoforou said the current situation was unfair and unequal and amounted to discrimination.

“This problem has not been created through the fault of just one government but in the state itself,” he said.

The DISY deputy presented to the committee the correspondence he has had with the government on the issue. He said the state was negative to the idea due to the costs involved in including a whole new generation of refugees needing financial and other support.

An official from the Finance Ministry said the cost to the state budget would be “enormous” if such new legislation was approved by parliament.
However Angelides pointed out that the current discrimination based on gender was a violation of the constitution.

Also present at the meeting was Markella Tsiakka, the chairman of the Movement for Displaced and Refugee Mothers.

It is not known how many children of refugee mothers exist. Tsiakka said she had asked the Statistical Service but they told her they didn’t know.
She submitted an official request to the committee yesterday for the lifting of the discrimination so that the law could be brought in line with European norms regarding gender equality.

Lazaros Savvides, the Permanent Secretary of the Interior Ministry said he would pass the information on to the Minister and inform the House committee during its next meeting on the issue.

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