Indicator history

ECRI’s fourth country report on racism and intolerance in Cyprus (published on 31.05.2011) criticises the Cypriot authorities for a long series of issues including: the non-implementation of the anti-racist and anti-discrimination legislation; the failure to keep any records on court decisions regarding discrimination; the failure to allocate sufficient funds and resources to the Equality Body/Ombudsman to enable it to carry out its functions; the restrictions imposed on the Equality Body as regards the appointment of its own staff (currently by the Civil Service Committee); educational policies resulting in the school segregation (disproportionately high concentration of Turkish Cypriot and Roma pupils in particular schools); the failure to provide for the educational needs of the Roma (lack of access to education for some Roma children residing in rural settlements); the marked increase in racism in schools; the lack of integration policy; the vulnerable situation of foreign domestic workers; the draft legislation currently under way  introducing measures to address irregular migration by means of “sham marriages”; negative attitudes towards migrants, asylum seekers and refugees commonly expressed in political discourse and in the media; the rise in prominence of extremist anti-immigration groups; the dissemination of hate speech through extreme nationalist websites; the delay on the part of the welfare authorities to pay public assistance to asylum seekers, the lack of coordination between the various government offices creating additional problems for asylum seekers with health problems trying to access the labour market; the restrictions in the availability of legal aid to asylum seekers; the non ratification of the Convention on the Participation of Foreigners in Public Life at Local Level, the European Convention on Nationality, the European Convention on the Legal Status of Migrant Workers and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, etc. The Equality Body also regularly criticizes the heavy handedness of the police towards migrants and asylum seeker, the practices of the immigration authorities, the school teachers and the police for downplaying racist motive in school incidents and in trying to attribute it to youth delinquency.