The housing assistance to displaced persons, the policy of sponsorships to refugee associations by the Ministries of Finance, Interior, Education and the Cyprus Sports Organization, as well as the problems faced by the trapped and those resettled in the Maronite villages in the occupied Kyrenia District, were at the center of the session of the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees on Tuesday.
As it was said in the session on December 20, the procedure before the Limassol District Court by refugees who filed a lawsuit, regarding the decision not to grant financial aid to displaced persons, who have already been approved for the allocation of state plots of land for the construction of a residence.
The President of the Refugee Committee, Nikos Kettiros, explained that the government had revised this decision in 2013 and was only granting the plot, without the housing assistance, to note that for ten years many of the citizens have not been able to take advantage of the plans to be housed and move on with their lives.
According to Mr. Kettiros, there was also a decision by the Commissioner of Administration, which vindicates these refugees, while he emphasized that the state should comply.
The President of the Refugee Committee spoke of a “vindictive” attitude on the part of the Ministry of the Interior, after the decision of some of the refugees to file a lawsuit in court.
He noted that during the session it was said that the Ministry of Interior would expect the outcome of the Court's decision, to see how it will proceed, with him adding that this decision may be issued in eight or ten years, when these people will have to house their children and grandchildren.
He also mentioned that there is a decision by the Commissioner of Administration, that the state must pay the housing aid, which will amount to around 4 million euros, to add that in a work exercise they did, they found that 100 million euros can easily be found from the unallocated funds of the last 10 years, related to the plans for refugee policy.
“Of these”, he said, “€4 million could be allocated for these people”.
In the meantime, in relation to the issue of the sponsorship policy for refugee associations, which was discussed during today's session, it was reported that the CMO decided and supported one of the three refugee associations, namely Anorthosis.
According to what the President of the Refugee Committee mentioned, in the next few days they will contact the President of the KOM, in order to arrange a meeting and close the issue of support for the other two unions, Nea Salamina and Ethnikos Achnas.
By next week, he said, there will be developments on the matter.
He also added that the amount to support the Nea Salamina and Ethnikos Achnas associations amounts to 320 thousand euros, noting that this is an amount they were expecting after the sending of the invoices to the Ministry of Finance that would have been sent to the unions, so that they could continue to operate.
Also, Mr. Kettiros said that the Ministry of Finance told the members of the Committee that it had no jurisdiction, despite the fact that the Ministry itself had requested that these invoices be sent.
The refugee unions, he said. , “they are kept alive because of our pride”.
Furthermore, the Appeals Committee examined the problems faced by those trapped and resettled in the Maronite villages, in the occupied Kyrenia Province.
In his statements, AKEL Member of Parliament, Christos Christofias, said that a systematic effort has been launched, whereby every six months, the necessary parliamentary control is carried out, for the progress in relation to solving the problems of the Maronites in their villages.
According to Mr. Christofias, progress has been made in relation to the new resettlement plan implemented by the Ministry of Social Welfare, which must be evaluated within 2023, when the necessary time has passed, so that they can have data in front of them.
He also said that progress has been made in relation to the support of farmers.
However, as Mr. Christofias said, “lots of other problems await resolution , such as the operation of the school after 1998, for which commitments were given by the government since last spring that a Cabinet decision would be taken”.
“It is the end of October and no decision has been made yet. In January is the registration for the new school year and the commitment to reopen the school, for the year 2023-2024, increasingly seems like an unrealized commitment of this government”, he said.
