TORN between longing for what they left behind in their homeland, and gratitude at not being sent back home, refugees in Cyprus are quietly trying to rebuild their lives here.
Most ultimately want to return home, but conditions in their homelands make this impossible.
Iraq is a prime example. According to UNHCR reports and guidelines, there is still no substantial improvement in the security and human rights in certain areas of the country. At present therefore, integration is the only viable solution for Iraqi refugees living in Cyprus, yet existing conditions and attitudes make this depressingly difficult. Certainly, the integration issue poses a real challenge to the government as it does to all democratic states that have a legal obligation under EU and national refugee law to adopt measures for the effective integration of refugees.
Currently there are around 2,000 people in Cyprus who have been granted international protection status, which means they are either recognised refugees or have been granted subsidiary protection status. More than a thousand of them are either Iraqis or Palestinians who had made Iraq their home.
Many of them are university graduates with impressive work experience in their homeland and have the abilities to make a success out of their lives here.
For Ali, a civil engineer and a successful businessman back in Iraq, the future seems bleak after two years in Cyprus. Although subsidiary protection status provides him with the required safety from the individual threats he had been receiving from unidentifiable insurgent forces back home due to his work with the US, his life has stagnated without his family and without employment in Cyprus. Ali’s wife and two daughters are stranded in Syria and although Ali applied for reunification with his family, as allowed by the national refugee law, seven months later he still doesn’t have a clear picture as to whether he will see them soon.
Despite his loneliness, Ali made attempts to find work, but in vain.
“I’m bored here and because of my subsidiary protection status, I cannot look for work that matches my skills, diplomas and experiences,” he says.
“I have the skills, the diplomas and the experience and I could be useful,” says Yasser, a member of the Palestinian minority group in Iraq, and a petroleum engineer who used to work at the University of Baghdad and currently lives on welfare.
Ibrahim, of Palestinian origin as well and a computer scientist by profession, is also on welfare.
“I receive welfare, but I am not proud of it. I want to change my life, forget the difficult past, become an active member of Cyprus society, develop my career and give a bright future for my children. If I can’t find work with my degree as a computer specialist, I will search work as a painter or as a taxi driver. When you are not working, you become isolated… I spend too much time thinking about the past and the friends or relatives I lost.”
Moustafa, also of Palestinian origin and once a famous lawyer in Iraq, now feels insecure about his and his family’s future.
“I need a job,” he says as he can see no prospect in relying on public allowance. He tried to register as a lawyer with the Cyprus Bar Association, but he received a letter in Greek rejecting his application. He confesses that some people try to avoid the jobs provided to them by the labour office, because the welfare allowance is higher than the wage received for the menial jobs they get offered and adds : “The labour office should give higher incentives for people to work, so that we are empowered.”
Similarly, Ahmed, an engineer who had to flee Iraq due to threats he was receiving because of his perceived affiliation with the Al Baath party, sadly confesses: “I was an engineer in Baghdad; but the labour office [in Cyprus] could only give me a job in a farm, far away from my family and with a very low salary that does not cover the basic needs of a family.”
Ibrahim understands that this is a difficult topic: “The Cyprus population is highly educated. A big part of them have masters or PhD’s. The labour office only offers job opportunities for people who want to work in farms, or construction. But we don’t have the knowledge to work in those kinds of areas and after all we didn’t leave our countries by choice but because our lives were at stake.”
The UNHCR believes that the Government should introduce more effective methods in finding employment for international protection holders and in matching their skills and knowledge with available vacancies. More employers need to be identified, approached and informed about the working rights of these specific groups as well as about the working profiles of international protection holders.
To compete in the labour market, many barriers need to be overcome and language is an important one. They all struggle to learn the language, but intensive language programmes specifically tailored to meet the integration needs of people with international protection status are almost non existent in Cyprus.
“I want to learn Greek, but there are no intensive classes. I followed one, but it was not intensive enough to help me with starting a new life,” says Ali. “I heard from friends in Sweden, Australia and the Netherlands that in those countries special obligatory programmes are developed to assist someone to become a member of society.”
Ahmed, an engineer in radio communication, was also eager to learn the language and looked on his own for courses but they were either expensive, full or he found out about them too late.
Language is not only important in finding a job, but also in making links with the local community. According to Ibrahim, you enter into a vicious circle if you don’t know the language: “When you don’t speak Greek, it’s hard to find a good job. Without a job, you don’t have money, so you can’t go out to meet Cypriots, practise Greek and integrate.”
Vocational training also has an empowering effect as it can facilitate access to employment opportunities.Many Palestinians from Iraq, who have sought asylum in Cyprus and are currently residing in Larnaca, are now undergoing vocational training at a school, twice a week. In addition to learning Greek, they are taking courses in tourism and hotel catering, as well as sessions on car electronics and mechanics. This programme was tailor-made by the school at the request of the Palestinian Human Rights Association, and soon a computing programme will be added.
Such programmes are definitely to be encouraged for all refugees and subsidiary protection holders. Both governmental responsible authorities and local authorities need to be actively involved in the organisation of these programmes many of which can be funded by EU sources.
Contrary to the general perception, refugees are not helpless people at the mercy of national social security systems of the host country. Many refugees residing here are determined to create a new life in Cyprus. What they need are the tools to do just that.
Given that many of the obstacles to integration faced by both refugees and migrants are similar, UNHCR has fought for the formulation of a comprehensive integration strategy for third-country nationals taking into account the special characteristics of refugees. In 2008, UNHCR Cyprus drafted a comprehensive framework on integration – shared with all partners involved, both governmental and non-governmental – suggesting for example the introduction of counselling programmes in the field of employment and housing, based on good practices adopted in other countries with longer traditions in migration and asylum.
(Names in this story changed for protection reasons)
Numbers
There are around 2,000 people in Cyprus who have been granted international protection status, which means they are recognised refugees or have been granted subsidiary protection status. Some 400 are from Iraq and another 740 are persons of Palestinian origin who lived in Iraq. There are a further 253 Iraqi asylum-seekers and 781 are Palestinians whose asylum request is pending examination.
Employment
Refugee law allows recognised refugees to work in any sector of the economy as the Cypriots do, but in practice the majority are employed as low-skilled workers. Subsidiary protection beneficiaries are allowed during the first year of their status to work only in certain areas of the economy (e.g. in agriculture, animal husbandly, in recycling plants, in construction, at petrol stations, sewage workers and collectors of garbage, etc.). After the elapse of the first year they acquire the same working rights as refugees.
Palestinians from Iraq
A number of refugees from Iraq have Palestinian origin. With the creation of the state of Israel, right after World War II, 30.000 of the Palestinian refugees were stranded in Iraq, like the grandparents of Moustapha, Ibrahim and Yasser presented in this story. When Sadam Hussein became the leader of Iraq, he gave the Palestinians special protection for political purposes. Further to the overthrow of Sadam in 2003 many Palestinians in Iraq were killed, imprisoned, or forced to leave, due to the preferential treatment they were receiving or due to their religion (Sunni).
