Report of the Anti-discrimination Authority of the Cypriot Equality Body
A number of complaints were submitted to the equality body about two different police operations resulting in mass arrests, detentions and deportations of migrants: in the first case following allegations about Chinese women practising prostitution; and in the second case in order to hunt down undocumented migrants. In particular, on 28.10.2007, a total of 28 Chinese women were arrested on suspicion of prostitution by under-cover policemen; none of the women admitted practising prostitution and the offence was not proven. Nevertheless, the police falsely recorded that they had admitted practising prostitution and they were all subsequently deported. The second operation took place on 25.09.2009 at dawn and involved the raiding of the houses of migrants, mass transfer to police stations, use of handcuffs and the setting up of road blocks, leading to 150 migrants being forcibly transferred to police stations to ascertain the legality of their stay; out of these, 36 persons were found to be undocumented. The operation had been televised and shown by all TV channels, invited on the spot by the police. It had also been at the centre of debates for weeks after it happened, with public figures such as the interior minister, the Nicosia Mayor and the ombudsman accusing the police of excessive use of force and for spreading xenophobia. The equality body report found that the stop and check of migrants without reasonable suspicion is not always conducive to the respect for fundamental rights and the principle of non-discrimination and should not be conducted on the basis of a generalised presumption of guilt against migrants or on the basis of checking out migrants at every opportunity. In the case of the operation against the Chinese women, it was clear that the deportations were carried out based solely on the testimony of the police officers who had trapped the women, without any judicial process or any admission on the part of the women some of whom were asylum seekers. The police operation of 2009 and the massive checks and arrests that followed were motivated by a presumption of guilt, in violation of the constitution. Also the road blocks, the fact that the operation took place at dawn, the use of handcuffs and the media coverage casts doubts on the targeted nature of the operation and on the proportionality of the measure.
