ECHR awards woman damages for being refused refugee status

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) awarded Maria Vrountou, a 35-year-old Cypriot daughter of a woman displaced during the 1974 invasion by Turkey, €40,000 in damages after ruling that her rights were violated by the Republic of Cyprus, it announced on Tuesday.

Vrountou sued in 2003, when the Cyprus government denied her refugee status, which came with a range of benefits – including housing assistance – but was until recently reserved for children of men displaced during the invasion.

Immediately following the invasion, the Council of Ministers of Cyprus approved the introduction of a scheme for war victims and persons displaced from areas occupied by the Turkish armed forces, according to which displaced persons were entitled to refugee cards.

In February 2003 Vrountou applied to the migration authorities for a refugee card as her mother had been displaced from Skylloura.

Her request was rejected in March 2003 on the basis that she could not be considered a displaced person because, while her mother was a displaced person, her father was not.

“In the ensuing judicial proceedings before the Supreme Court, Vrountou’s recourse was dismissed in May 2004 because it was not possible to extend the applicable criteria for granting refugee cards so as to cover the children of displaced women,” the ECHR said.

“The Supreme Court upheld these findings on appeal in March 2006, considering that it did not have jurisdiction to extend the refugee card scheme.”

Vrountou complained about the refusal of the authorities to grant her a refugee card, alleging that this had meant that she had been denied a range of benefits.

She also alleged that denying her a refugee card on the basis that she had been the child of a displaced woman rather than a displaced man had been discriminatory on the grounds of sex and that no authority in Cyprus, including the courts, had examined the merits of her complaint.

The discriminatory law was amended in December 2013, placing children of male and female refugees on an equal footing.

The ECHR awarded Vrountou €29,000 in pecuniary damages, €4,000 in non-pecuniary damages, and €6,981 in legal costs and expenses.

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.