‘More than 1,000 people’ incarcerated in north’s prison

More than 1,000 people are currently incarcerated at the north’s prison, Cyprus Turkish civil servants’ trade union (Ktams) leader Guven Bengihan said on Thursday.

Speaking to news website Kibris Postasi, he said the number of prisoners in the north is “increasing every day”, with an exact total of 1,050 currently inside. This figure is edging towards double the prison’s stated capacity of 625 inmates.

Because of this, he said, “the workload of the 275 prison guards has increased”, and they are being “constantly called to work” and being asked to work overtime.

He added that the root cause of the problem is the number of third country nationals being employed illegally in the north.

“The prison is overflowing because the country is being treated like an inn and is telling people, ‘don’t ask, just come in’,” he said.

He added that the flow of migrants into the north is “causing serious social and criminal problems”.

“People coming from African countries in particular enter the country for the purpose of working illegally. They usually come to the country through the universities,” he added.

This in turn is proving to be a burden on public finances, he said, pointing out that the cost of housing one prisoner in the north is 1,200TL (€34) per day.

This being the case, the Turkish Cypriot taxpayer is currently footing a more than €50,000-per-day bill for the prison’s operation.

Bengihan said the high costs “negatively impact the country’s other public services”, and also said “unfair profits” are being made by catering providers.

He then called on the north’s authorities to “keep points of entry under control” and to prevent people from working in the north illegally.

Prison director Fatih Erdogan had sounded the alarm last year when he revealed prisoners were being held in cells with 13 other people.

He had also lamented a “lack of personnel”.

The ‘government’ had attempted to alleviate some of the pressure on the prison last winter, with a temporary provision being signed into law to allow prisoners to apply for parole after having served a third of their sentence.

However, the figures revealed by Bengihan on Thursday suggest that numbers are still too high.