THE MOVEMENT of Refugee Mothers will be taking their fight to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) seeking redress for discrimination against them by the Republic of Cyprus.
“We are not begging for anything. We are not second-class citizens…we want equal treatment for our children,” Markella Isaiah, head of the movement, told newsmen yesterday.
The movement was founded in 2005 by women displaced from their homes and properties during the 1974 invasion, demanding that they should be allowed to transfer their refugee status to their children, as is the case with male refugees.
The state does not recognise children born to displaced women as refugees, while those whose father was a refugee enjoy a host of benefits, including a grant for a first home.
Mother refugees, however, were granted a house by the government in refugee estates after the invasion.
Under the law, the children whose father is a refugee are considered to have been displaced from the same occupied place their father comes from. Refugee status is transferred to the next generation.
Having taken recourse to the Supreme Court on the grounds of discrimination and lost, the mothers now plan to take their cause to Europe for what they believe to be their inalienable human right.
“The top court of Cyprus said it did not have the power to declare the current laws unconstitutional. Therefore we shall be taking our case to the ECHR with individual applications,” said Isaiah.
She said the mothers had been “extremely patient” and had given politicians and members of parliament ample time to consider their demands.
“We are neither politicians nor deputies. It is not our aim to deprive anyone else of their income. What we want is respect,” said Isaiah.
The Movement has highlighted President Christofias’ election campaign promise regarding refugee status of children whose mothers are refugees.
To illustrate how unfair the current laws are, the Movement mentions that children of a refugee male married to a foreign woman, even if adopted, are entitled to refugee status.
According to official records, 199,576 people were registered as displaced in 2008, out of a population of 789,300 – or 25 per cent. There are 51,260 refugees from their mothers’ side, which would bring the total to 250,836 refugees, or 31 per cent of the population, a proportion that would increase with every generation.
