Filenews 18 April 2021 - by Marios Dimitriou
For "miserable working and living conditions" affecting young foreign immigrants the director of the non-governmental organisation protecting victims of human trafficking, Cyprus Stop Trafficking [CST], Friday Jeu spoke to ''F''.
In an apocalyptic intervention on the unacceptable phenomenon of wild exploitation of workers, particularly in the agri-food sector in Cyprus, he said that many of them are victims or potential victims of labour trafficking. The majority of these workers are Egyptians, but there are also many Africans mainly from Cameroon, as well as Asians from India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Recalling that Cyprus Stop Trafficking, in addition to hosting women victims of sexual exploitation, also maintains a shelter for male victims or potential victims of labour exploitation recognised by the competent Office of the Police for Combating Trafficking in Persons (GNP), Mrs. Jeu informed us that the shelter is currently home to eleven victims or potential victims – eight Egyptians, one Pakistani and two Indians. Almost all worked in livestock, while one Indian complained that while he had come to the island to work as a carer for an elderly family member, he was forced by his employer to work in his restaurant 13 hours a day from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
According to Mrs Jeu, "in recent months the shelter for male victims of labour exploitation has been very mobile. The people arriving at our shelter - she added - worked mainly in livestock farms and both their working and living conditions there were miserable. The demands have increased so much that often the space is not enough to accommodate all recognised or potential victims."
Food for dogs, garbage for the Egyptian
Last Thursday, April 15, 2021, I met one of the eleven guests of the CST shelter, the 39-year-old Egyptian R, a possible victim of labour trafficking who came a few months ago to work in Cyprus to financially support his wife and three young children back in Egypt and ended up sick and homeless in old Nicosia. Friday Jeu told me he was referred to the organization by Social Welfare Services who spotted him literally sleeping on the street near Freedom Square. He was also transferred to Menoya for a time where migrants destined for deportation are being held. R. described to me the experience of working on a sheep and goat farm in a village in Nicosia as the worst of his life, both for the endless hours of daily work, and for his stay in a small shack inside the farm full of insects and reptiles, as he said. He also spoke of the bad behaviour of his "master" towards him, to the point that he fell ill with a high fever and filled his body with scars due to intense stress. He added that when he asked for medication and complained about his inhumane working conditions, his employer left him without food for three days and he was forced to eat garbage..."He brought food to the junkyard dogs, but he left me fasting," he told me.
Three cases in Limassol, Sotira, Deryneia
These modern slaves of Cyprus, whose cases are known and some reach the Courts, are among the few brave - or desperate, depending on the point of view seen by everyone - who dared to report their suffering to the Police or to human rights activists. But the vast majority of foreign workers from third countries are silenced by the medieval treatment they experience by preferring their chains to the impasse of unemployment and the prospect of deportation. The head of the Police Office for Combating Trafficking in Persons Office Lieutenant Helen Michael has informed us that three very serious cases of trafficking in persons are currently being heard which the GKE has identified as victims of labour trafficking. On 9 September 2020, a case was registered in the Limassol Criminal Court with two accused persons allegedly mistreating two young Nepalese foreigners who worked in the livestock premises of the first suspect and were found injured and in a miserable psychological state. Another case of labour exploitation uncovered in May 2020, with a Cypriot and his Egyptian assistant indicted, with the victims of two Egyptian farm workers in the village of Sotira Famagusta, where they also lived, in squalid conditions. In addition, a third trafficking case is being heard by the GEP, where the recognised victims are also Egyptian workers in a agri-food premises in Deryneia and their Cypriot employer is accused.
Finally, a case of trafficking of foreign workers on a chicken farm, who have been identified as victims of labour exploitation, is still on trial - ten years after the start of the legal proceedings.
Sentenced to 12 months in prison without parole, a farmer from a village in Paphos and an 18-month prison sentence with a three-year suspension, a pair of vegetable growers in a Nicosia village for the labour exploitation of two young Bangladeshi immigrants, Mohammad Palus and Yusuf Ali Khan, respectively, ended on 2 November 2017 in the Permanent Criminal Court of Nicosia, a shocking case of trafficking of adults from Bangladesh, , but also inhuman exploitation of them, which the undersigned watched continuously. In relation to the case of the employer from Paphos, it is stated, inter alia, in the Judgment of the Court that 'the repeated phrase which the employer sent to his then 25-year-old employee from Bangladesh was 'Bagkladesi come on, black come on'... He abused him physically and psychologically, never paid him for his gruelling, daily, 15-hour work during the three months of summer 2014 and forced him to live in a chicken coop(!), "in conditions that even animals could not live, let alone humans", according to the Nicosia Permanent Criminal Court.
In relation to the Nicosia case, the judgment of the Criminal Court states, inter alia, that "the foreign farm worker experienced for a whole year the voices, threats and use of force by his employers to succumb and work excessive hours, with payment of less salary, but forcing him to sign that he was receiving his entire legal salary. He was also not provided with adequate feeding, nor even alerted a doctor when he became seriously ill. The working and living conditions of the Bangladeshi foreigner, only wretched, unacceptable, inhuman and utterly shameful, can be described as, without a shred of respect or appreciation and concern for their fellow man."
Brutal hours for seven Indians
This case concerns seven Indian economic migrants, recognised by the GEP as victims of trafficking at work, who complained that their employers had forced them for months to work on farms on brutal hours (5 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m.), often without food, while some beat them up if they dared to protest. I met them in February 2015 at the Cyprus Stop Trafficking shelter in Nicosia, while they were waiting to testify as prosecution witnesses in the trials against their exploiters and in the meantime they were looking for work. Here's what the experiences of three of them were as they were told to me.
Dalbir worked in a pigsty and cow farm in a Nicosia village, along with four other Indians. "My employer was tough... My work started at 5:00 in the morning until 8:00 at night... No food. I was finished by the pigsty and walked for 40 minutes to go to another farm of my master... for 400 euros per month. After six months, my residence permit ran out... My master beat me every day, since from a lot of work I was tired and I couldn't do it the way he wanted. I was cleaning the whole yard... When I wanted to eat, I would walk to a grocery store in Akaki and buy food. I finally escaped and reported the case to the G.O.P. After me two more left and they were also identified by the police as victims of trafficking, and our other two compatriots were left to work for five...".
Amrinder worked at a sheep yard in Paphos, 5 - 6 km from a residential area. "For the first 4 months, I worked from 5 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., with an hour's break at noon. My master not only didn't pay me, but he slapped me a few times. That's why I got up and left and then worked for nine months on a cow farm in Akaki. My employer was a little better there, but he fired me because his jobs didn't go well."
Balbir was a father of two, came to Cyprus in September 2014 and worked on a sheep farm in Timi, Paphos. "I was only a worker for a thousand sheep... I worked from 4 a.m., until 9 p.m."
Complaint of mistreatment of Sirlankezu
An unprecedented case of allegations of inhuman, illegal and degrading treatment of a Sri Lankan worker by his Cypriot employer, the owner of an animal farm, has been called upon since August 2020 to manage the Ministry of Labour, following a complaint by the foreigner's lawyer with substantiated written evidence. Srilankezos did not report his mistreatment to the Police – out of ignorance or fear of a vengeful reaction by his employer – and was therefore not identified as a victim by the competent Police Office.
According to the lawyer's complaint to The Minister of Labour Zeta Emilianidou, the complainant worked and stayed at the company's premises from January 2014 until November 2018 when he was unlawfully dismissed, with threats and intimidation on the part of the company, while his contract of employment, which was renewed every year, included a continuation of his employment in 2019.
His expulsion followed a serious injury in a car accident in which he was hit by a car that left the scene, so unable to work, he was absent from work on sick leave. For five years the employer cut off money from Sri lankankezu's monthly salary for life and health insurance which he refused to give him at the time of his injury. This insurance, the premium of which Srilankezos paid monthly, covered every injury, including the one he suffered, as well as the surgeries and medical expenses he needed. According to the complaint, Srilankezu's employment contract and related laws provide that the employer in this case not only does not have the right to terminate his employment, but must help him to remain in the Republic of Cyprus until he receives appropriate medical care and compensation.
The lawyer pointed out that his client for five years had his salary cut by the employer, while he was forced to sleep on a wooden plank in a small shed that was in a garbage dump, without heating or cooling, amid severe stench due to problematic drainage, along with two other foreign employees. He kept working a night shift with overtime for 14 hours instead of seven, but he was getting a much lower morning shift salary in violation of his employment contract. He was only allowed a 15-minute break for the entire day, and was not provided by his employer with the medical coverage he needed, nor the permits provided for in his employment contract. According to the complaint, the food the employer gave him was a little and often expired. The same degrading and racist treatment, according to the complainant, was given to other foreign employers by illegal dismissals and forced to resign without compensation to those who were sick or injured.
The dismissal of his client, as the lawyer claims, is illegal, since the foreigner had become an employee of indefinite duration and presented the company with sick leave, which legally obliged his employer not to fire him and to help him receive appropriate treatment, as his contract and insurance. Instead, the employer forced him with intimidation to sign his exit from the Nicosia General Hospital while he had not yet been cured and referred him to his own doctors, who, as the company falsely informed him, deemed him suitable for work.
According to the lawyer, his client visited a doctor of his choice after he had terrible pains and could not work, who felt that the patient had serious injuries and immediately needed two surgeries and a hierococcal epidural injection. His employer not only refused to help him with the treatment he needed, but told him to return to his country and stopped giving him food and medicine! He also threatened that "if he doesn't leave on his own, the police will go to jail tonight." In the end, she fired him after he refused to leave.
