Filenews 19 April 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
Some people seem to just want to get rid of the important problem that they allowed to be created in Chlorakas, transferring it to another village and specifically to Emba. This is denounced by institutions and residents of the community, after the peak of the problem that is created recently, with the incidents of Friday night. They foreshadow peaceful protests immediately after the holy days of Easter.
Community Council and Emba residents shout that the state allows watching without interfering with businessmen who exploit the housing needs of these people to make "policy", deciding which will transfer immigrants depending on the reactions that exist and the availability of their own spaces. At the same time, they complain that almost every night in recent weeks, migrants of Arab or African origin appear out of nowhere in the centre of Emba with travel luggage in their hands and are guided by some to specific building complexes to live with the hundreds of other foreigners already in them.
"Emba is a community of about 3,000 inhabitants. It is inconceivable that it has today more than 1,000 immigrants settled on its territory," is the refrain that has been heard since the day before yesterday from all the official lips of the community.
And this, after the first large-scale incidents between foreigners and local residents of Embas, on Friday night, for which two Syrians were already detained for three days by the Pafos District Court as the ringleaders of the incidents, while the Police are looking for other people involved.
Strong police forces, reinforced by the MMAD, have since been conducting all-night patrols in the area to avoid the resurgence of incidents and to protect the homes of foreigners of Arab and African origin who were recently transferred to Emba.
Letter from the C.C. to the Ministry of Interior
The serious incidents of last Friday are the culmination so far of the underlying dissatisfaction of Local Authorities and residents for the planned, transfer of foreigners to the territory of the community, in order to decongest Chlorakas from the very acute problem it has faced in recent years. There had been lesser incidents and tensions between local and foreign residents, while the Community Authority had, from the beginning, reacted negatively to the transfer of so many foreigners to residences within Emba, considering that it was only a matter of time before Chloraka's problems were transferred to this area.
The Council of Embas had also sent a warning letter to the Ministry of Interior, stating that both the mass movement of foreigners in the community, as well as their placement in unsuitable premises, often up to 10 people in a small house, is a slow-burning bomb in the foundations of the local community. Officials of the Community Authority complain that in a community of 3-4,000 inhabitants the number of foreigners who moved there already exceeds 1,000, while every night people of Arab and African origin are found with travel suitcases entering through rural roads into the core of the community and settling in it without any procedure.
