Two-year action plan to combat flesh trade

CYPRUS HAS come up with an action plan to combat human trafficking more effectively over the next two years.

The plan’s details were presented yesterday at an awareness-raising event at the Presidential Palace.

“This is significant, as no previous action plan had a timescale with specific objectives and so under them nothing was done,” said Doros Polycarpou, director of migrant support group KISA.

Cyprus has dedicated several years to improving its previously embarrassing record on human trafficking and harmonising with international laws.

“The significant steps in the last two years have been recognised internationally, removing Cyprus from the blacklist [where it had been] designated as not taking sufficient measures to combat the phenomenon of human trafficking,” said Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis.

The problem has crept back into the spotlight over the past few years with stories of children being trafficked and instances of trafficking for organ transplants coming to light.

Polycarpou believes there is a false perception among Cypriots that human trafficking only relates to prostitution.

The illegality lies in bringing people to the island to work under false pretences and then keeping them here under conditions of dependency.

Nowadays, said Polycarpou, it is in the labour market that human trafficking in Cyprus presents the most intractable programme.

“Our legal structure has attributes which not only encourages this form of trafficking but also protects those who engage in it,” he said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.