Domestic Workers Are Killed in Cyprus, and Authorities Face a Reckoning

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At least seven foreign-born women or their young daughters — many missing for months or years — are believed to have been victims of a man suspected of serial killings in Cyprus, who the police say was arrested last month and confessed this week.

But the arrest, far from reassuring the public, has raised questions about the treatment of migrant workers on the Mediterranean island nation. It also has cast a harsh light on a police response that critics say was grossly insufficient. Most victims were domestic workers from Asia, including one who disappeared in 2016.

“With all these things that they are doing now — searches, retrieving bodies, finding these things — they should have done these things a year ago,” said Lissa Jataas, a Filipina housemaid and the founder of Obreras Empowered, a group that supports domestic workers.

The justice minister resigned on Thursday and the chief of police is facing calls to resign. President Nicos Anastasiades has ordered an investigation of the police response and, to quell international outcry, plans to meet with diplomats from the home countries of migrants who come to Cyprus for domestic work.

“I want to reassure our determination for the full unraveling of the atrocious killings, but also a full investigation of complaints about missing persons,” Mr. Anastasiades said on Twitter. He was set to meet with Zacharias Chrysostomou, the chief of police, on Friday.

The justice minister, Ionas Nicolaou, said that while he was not directly involved in the investigation, “conscience and principles force me to resign.” In a statement, Mr. Nicolaou said his resignation was necessary not only because of “the heinous crime” but “all that is becoming known in relation to its handling and possible omissions.”

The police say a 35-year-old army captain, detained in mid-April, confessed in recent days to killing at least seven women and girls, according to news reports. The police have yet to identify him by name.

The arrest came after the bodies of two women were found in a mine shaft near the capital, Nicosia, in the village of Mitsero — the first on April 14 and the second as investigators searched for evidence — after a German tourist had spotted something unusual, the police said. Other decomposing bodies were found in suitcases dumped in a nearby lake.

The police identified the first victim as Marry Rose Tiburcio, 38, from the Philippines. Friends told the authorities in May of 2018 that Ms. Tiburcio and her 6-year-old daughter had disappeared, according to local news reports.

Two domestic workers from the Philippines are also missing and feared dead, as are a Romanian woman, her young daughter and a woman of South Asian descent.

Activists have worked to publicize the women’s cases, organizing demonstrations and gathering at the presidential palace.

Dr. Natalie Alkiviadou, a lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire Cyprus and director of Aequitas, a human rights group, said that migrant domestic workers have been marginalized in the country.

The legal status of these workers are tied to their employer and, in most instances, they live in the homes of their employer, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. The workers have limited legal protections.

More than 30,000 domestic migrant workers live in Cyprus legally, and another 30,000 without legal status, according to Aequitas. Most are from the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India and Nepal.

Dr. Alkiviadou said the women are considered inferior by many in Cypriot society, a view reflected in the local language. Two of the Greek words used by Cypriots to refer to domestic workers translate as “girl” or “little black girl.”

“You may have a lady who is 55 years old working in a home and she is still referred to as ‘girl,’” Dr. Alkiviadou said.

Other countries have been criticized for abusive treatment of migrant domestic workers. Reports of human rights abuses, exploitation and marginalization of migrant workers have emerged globally, from Hong Kong to Kuwait, and international human rights groups have detailed wide-scale abuses.

Dr. Alkiviadou said the victims’ status as domestic workers could have been a factor in the treatment of their cases by Cypriot investigators. “If at least one of the women that he targeted was a Cypriot, the handling by the police potentially would have been different,” she said.

Ms. Jataas, the domestic worker, said these particular killings were symptoms of an institutionalized mistreatment.

“I’m asking the question — are we the victims of this one guy,” she said, “or the victims of a bad system? ”





Source : Nytimes