Indicator history

 There are regular media reports about police raids into rural establishments, in the framework of an effort to crack down on illegal employment, where a number of foreign nationals are located living in shacks, and living conditions are appalling, with the workers forced to live and sleep in squalid, rundown shacks, 12 persons having to share a single sleeping quarters, whereas the lack of space forced some of the workers to sleep outdoors in the fields. The workers, usually from the former ‘Eastern bloc’, are brought to Cyprus under the pretence that they will be given contractual labour, but end up in cramped quarters with no hot water or showers, while receiving maximum €20 a week. (http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/police-raid-slave-labour-farm/20100901;http://www.cyprus-mail.com/crime/five-day-remand-after-farm-arrest/20100902).

A new law came into force in late 2009 (Law No. 143(I)/2009) amending the basic immigration law, providing that a person who owns, runs or occupies premises and to his knowledge and upon pay or contract allows these premises to be used by an ‘alien’ illegally residing in Cyprus, is guilty of a criminal offence and subject to imprisonment up to 18 months and/or a fine up to 4,000 Euros. Regarding what constitutes ‘knowledge’ that a particular prospective tenant is illegally residing in the country or not, there is a rebuttable presumption that a landlord who has carried out all reasonable and necessary investigations to establish whether a particular prospective tenant is residing lawfully in Cyprus or not, shall be deemed not to have knowledge and is therefore exempted. Regarding rental agreements concluded or renewed prior to the coming into force of this law, the provisions of the new law will apply 12 months after the coming into effect of this present law. The law has attracted criticism from MPs and human rights NGOs that it attempts to turn the average citizen into police spies.