The hairdresser who was forced to flee to Cyprus
Forty-year-old Marika believes she is just one of many Bulgarian women who have been forced to find employment in Cyprus after having lost everything to the mafia in her own home country.
“I used to have four hairdressing salons in Sofia and then from one day to the next I had nothing,” she said.
“The mafia saw I was successful. I had my own car, my own apartment, I had money… They took everything.’
How the divorced mother of two, who has only seen her 10-year-old son twice in the two years she’s been here, had been swindled out of all her money by the mafia was not exactly clear.
Speaking broken English and Greek, Marika said she had signed up for some health insurance policy and within days she’d lost everything. Asked why she hadn’t sought legal advice, she said the lawyers and legal system was equally corrupt.
“I ended up in a hotel with nothing. I had nothing left and didn’t know what to do.”
In her desperation she joined an agency that had promised to find her employment in Dubai. Instead of going to the United Arab Emirates, however, she ended up here.
“I got a phone call and they said to me in two days you are going to Cyprus. I said, ‘Cyprus? What is this?’ I didn’t know anything about Cyprus, but here I am.”
Marika, who presently works at a Nicosia hair salon, said she was finding it difficult in Cyprus due to the people’s mentality and attitude.
Used to living in Sofia, she said she found people here had a “village mentality”.
“Some women talk to me very badly. I have been doing this job for 20 years and they talk to me like I know nothing,” she said.
Understandably it has been hard for Marika to adjust from going to employer to employee overnight, but still she considers herself fortunate.
“There are many people like me in Bulgaria. I am lucky because I have a profession and can find work. Other people though, they lose everything and can find no work,” she said.
According to her present employer Marika was obviously both desperate and determined to work.
“She came to me four months ago looking for work but couldn’t speak a word of Greek. I told her I couldn’t employ her. Then last month she came back speaking in Greek and asking for a job. I was amazed that she’d gone to such great lengths to learn some basic Greek and tried her out. We’ve kept her on since,” he said.
Marika added: “I don’t ever want to go back to Bulgaria. I no longer feel it’s my motherland. I hate it. I don’t know that I will stay in Cyprus, but I know that I won’t go back there.”
