Filenews 26 July 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
Turmoil and a tense atmosphere have prevailed since yesterday in the shelter for migrant minors in Kato Paphos. Information from "F" reports that the new tension began in the morning, when several of the 150 guests in the camp began to react strongly to their continued hospitality there, considering that the assurances they received about their living conditions, including, as they claimed, the payment of some allowances to them, were not fulfilled. As a result, the young guests also forced the exit from the building of the social workers in charge of their daily lives, while some of them tried to make dynamic mobilizations on the streets of the area, preventing traffic.
In order to deal with these phenomena, police forces and officers of the competent state services of social policy were immediately mobilized, while in the area again since yesterday there is concern among residents and businessmen, who see, for the umpteenth time from the transfer of the structure to the heart of the tourist area of Kato Paphos, the image of the destination being tarnished and phenomena that frighten visitors are caused.
According to the representative of the Paphos Police Department, Michalis Nikolaou, the Paphos Police was informed from the beginning yesterday that the minors residing in the facility intended to make a protest event for the fulfilment of some of their demands, such as the granting of a monetary allowance.
"The Police," he said, "were sent to prevent incidents. As it seems, the group of minors at some stage was trying to cut off the road in front of a complex of apartment buildings, resulting in the derailment of the situation with the harassment of a passing vehicle, as well as with an attempt to attack members of the Paphos ADE".
According to Mr. Nikolaou, order was imposed in a short time and the situation was normalized, but under surveillance by a force of the Pafos Directorate.
Yesterday's incidents are considered by the competent bodies to be among the most important that have occurred during this period of the few months of operation of the juvenile camp in Paphos. A similar concern had been caused on May 21, with neighbours and shopkeepers complaining that that night the most serious incidents were recorded since the day of the transfer of the 150 unaccompanied foreigners to Paphos.
For a trivial reason, according to the police examinations, dozens of young people who live in the area where they have settled, in the central area by the Tombs of the Kings, collided for hours with each other, causing concern in the wider area with chases, armed with lumps of wood and using objects against each other.
Terrified neighbours informed the Police, whose powerful forces, reinforced by members of the MMAD, rushed to the spot to impose order. Two young people were injured in the incidents and needed to be transferred to Paphos Hospital where they were treated, while late at night the situation in the camp was normalized.
A reinforced police force has remained in the area since yesterday to prevent a resurgence of the incidents, however, local residents and shopkeepers now feel very strongly about the social status that is being consolidated in the area. Especially the entrepreneurs of the hundreds of tourism businesses in the area are complaining about the effects caused to the image of this tourist area of the city, at a time, they point out, when tourist traffic has made a good recovery after the pandemic restrictions.
