TWO DIKO deputies have tabled a proposal to reduce the amount of state benefits received by asylum seekers because many receive “massive funds” they said.
The proposal would legislate the funds and benefits asylums seekers receive as they are higher than those received by Cypriots, deputies Zacharias Koulias and Fytos Constantinou said.
The proposed law foresees that asylum seekers receive 20 per cent of the amount received by Cypriots.
“As is well known, many asylum seekers receive massive funds, and depending on how many wives they have, they can sometimes receive €3,000 to €4,000,” said Koulias. “Banks wonder how these amounts can be given. In the EU, asylum seekers are given job opportunities and some benefits. Here we enable them to take luxury cars. The other day an asylum seeker went to private clinic to have his baby.”
He added: “Things need to be put into the correct framework. If some ministers want to save face, they can do it with their own money.”
Koulias said asylum seekers were being supported at the expense of Cypriots. “Our proposal wants them to be treated like in other countries. Here we keep them for three years, we pay for them and the Interior Ministry said we have given €18 million to asylum seekers. This is unfair on Cypriot civilians, who are being burdened with measure upon measure to save one euro here and another there.”
Last year a survey of asylum seekers in Cyprus by the UNHCR found that out of the thousands living on the island, only hundreds actually receive state benefits. According a the survey those who did receive benefits endured long delays in processing of their applications, long delays in payment, delays in subsequent payments and discrepancies in the amounts they received.
The UNHCR found that many people who applied at the Social Welfare for public assistance had given up because they were told to leave and to look for a job, even though the Labour Office could not provide them with one.
From those surveyed, the UNHCR found that the required home visit by welfare officials to an asylum seeker’s place of residence usually took between one and three months but over 12 per cent took longer.
After the home visit, it then took over four months in one fifth of cases to receive the allowance, and after that, delays in receiving it regularly.
When it came to subsequent payments over 32 per cent said they had to visit the welfare office between three and five times before they got paid again, over 15 per cent had to visit between six and ten times, 8.5 per cent had to go between 11 and 20 times and ten per cent over 20 times.
