THE OMBUDSWOMAN has come into conflict with the agency in charge of supporting refugees, after she ruled against the latter’s decision to reject a refugee’s application for a grant to acquire a home in Larnaca.
The reason offered by the Central Agency for Equal Distribution of Burdens was that the applicant’s wife already owned a property in Nicosia and he was therefore not facing housing difficulties as a result of his refugee status.
The agency also viewed the application as a request for a holiday home, given that it was located along the Larnaca coast.
However Ombudswoman Eliza Savvidou said it was “coincidental and irrelevant” that the refugee’s wife owned an apartment in Nicosia. He was an independent entity, she said.
The applicant, Spyros Yiallourides, was turned down by the agency and then by the review authority after he filed an objection, but Savvidou’s ruling has vindicated him. He told the Cyprus Mail yesterday the agency had examined his application as a family instead of as an individual.
“Their only question was if I was married, as if this is was infliction,” he said. “So I sought my rights, which ended with the Ombudswoman. She made recommendation and has invited them on May 18 to tell them how they should comply.”
He said according to the agency’s thinking “whoever has the bad luck to marry a man or woman who has property in their name” is automatically excluded from schemes for the displaced.
Yiallourides said he felt this stance was what forced many Greek Cypriots to resort to the Turkish Cypriot side’s property commission to sell their properties.
He said if the state gave the help it is obliged to give, people wouldn’t be forced “to apply to the invader”. He added that he didn’t intend to apply himself, though he totally understood why others would.
The Ombudswoman ruled that the agency’s decision “demolishes the applicant’s right to his financial independence”.
Yiallourides – a refugee from Morphou is married to a woman from Nicosia who owns an apartment where they live with their two children. He applied to the agency in 2008 for a loan to purchase the Larnaca home.
The application was rejected with the excuse that Yiallourides wasn’t facing housing difficulties. The agency backed up its decision by the fact that the loan was requested to purchase a home in Larnaca and not Nicosia, where the applicant works. This indicated to them that Yiallourides was requesting money for a holiday home.
However, the Ombudswoman didn’t see it that way.
“Seeing that he is displaced and doesn’t own his own home, he has a right to apply to the agency…to acquire a first home in the free areas,” said Savvidou.
The head of the agency, Akis Pouros said that while the Ombudswoman’s job is to protect the rights of people as independent bodies, the agency had to distribute its limited funds to those who truly need it. Pouros said the agency had no intention of complying with Savvidou’s ruling. “Applications for the purchase of a second home are not approved if the first home is considered appropriate,” he said.
