EU Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammerberg said yesterday that he would be contacting the Cypriot government over the status of a group of Iraqi refugees that have been camped outside the UN Protected Area in Nicosia for the last 73 days.
Hammerberg met the refugees yesterday, calling the situation they found themselves in “very sad”.
“It is very sad that they have to demonstrate like this. There is a real refugee problem in Iraq and the international community has an obligation to protect these people,” he said. “I will be raising the issue with the Cypriot authorities to see what can be done so that they can get their basic human rights.”
The EU Commissioner sat alongside the refugees in a custom-made tent that they had set up on the side of the road leading to the United Nations Protected Area. Hammerberg listened to the grievances of the refugees before telling their representatives that while he could not give them any guarantees, he would do anything in his power to help their cause.
The refugees, in total around 80, are protesting that they have only received subsidiary status from the Cypriot government and have not been granted proper refugee status.
According to Cypriot law, an individual that has been given subsidiary protection by the government is only allowed to be employed in the agricultural and horticultural sector for the first year. The refugees argue that this is impossible for them, as many have young children and cannot survive.
About ten members of the group have been camped outside the UN Protected Area since the end of February. One of the refugees told the Cyprus Mail that Cyprus should not act so inconsiderately.
“How many Cypriots are there living abroad now who left in 1974 as refugees?” he said. “We have been given subsidiary protection but it makes absolutely no difference to us. They have told us why don’t we go back to our country. I tell you, we are not here because we want to. If the Cypriot government are not prepared to grant us our rights, then they should at least transfer us to another country that will.”
UNHCR Representative Emilia Strovolidou said that the authorities had an obligation to protect the people.
“It is a country’s responsibility based on the Geneva Convention to give protection. Everyone knows the situation in Iraq, who can judge when the war will be over, nobody knows how long they will have to stay on the island? They sent a letter to the government on February 21 and even though we have been in contact with them about the issue, they have not responded yet,” she said yesterday.
In Cyprus, 12,508 asylum seekers were recorded as pending examination of their claims last year, while 924 were recorded as refugees, as persons granted subsidiary protection and humanitarian status. Out of the 12,508 asylum seekers at the end of 2006, 265 are from Iraq. There are around four million refugees from Iraq since the beginning of the war, with a displacement rate of 50,000 per month.
