A total of 100 people who were revealed to have been living in squalor in a camp near Morphou filed reports to the Turkish Cypriot police that they had been trafficked, the Human Rights Platform (IHP) reported on Wednesday.
They said they were evaluating the case, which was brought to the fore on Monday with graphic images of the shacks in which large numbers of migrant workers who had been brought to the north to pick fruit were living.
“The incident has deepened today, with more than 100 workers going to the police with the same complaint. However, it is known that the remaining workers, who number some 600, have requested help from us, but are hesitant to go to the police due to safety concerns,” they said.
They added that for this reason, the number of people filing reports with the Turkish Cypriot police may increase as the weak goes on.
For this reason, they called on the north’s authorities to take the “necessary steps … to immediately ensure the safety of victims of human trafficking and ensure their access to justice in a healthy manner.”
They also said it was “unacceptable” to “send victims back to the camps” after they have filed reports, as “it will lead to them once again being made victims”.
“It is essential that temporary shelter and protection measures are urgently put in place until permanent solutions are produced in the face of this situation,” they said.
Meanwhile, it was reported by newspaper Ozgur Gazete on Wednesday evening that Cemal Redif the general manager of, Cypfruvex, he north’s citrus export company and the company which allegedly brought the workers to Cyprus, was summoned to the Morphou police station to give a statement.
The saga has not escaped the attention of Turkish Cypriot politicians, with opposition party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman remarking that “there used to be a place called the labour ministry in this country,” and criticising the ‘ministry’s’ silence on the matter since the story broke.
Fellow opposition party TDP leader Zeki Celer also criticised the lack of statement from the competent authorities.
“This is the third day since the news broke, and the labour ministry, which is the main responsible party, the health ministry, and the Morphou municipality have all not made a single explanation nor intervention on the subject,” he said.
He also questioned why Cypfruvex had imported so many workers from third countries.
“Were the seasonal fruit pickers who came from Turkey for so many years not preferred? Why? Probably because they crushed the workers who came from Turkey, they did not pay them properly, and they tried to make them live in inhumane conditions. Why would they even come?”
The story had broken on Monday, with journalist Pinar Barut saying of the workers’ living conditions that “the scene we encountered in Morphou horrified us. The workers we spoke to said they have been living in these conditions for months.”
“They are all trying to survive in a slave camp, filthy, unemployed, penniless, with no water, electricity, hygiene, toilets, or bathrooms. No one has visited them for months,” she added.
One of the workers told Ozgur Gazete, “I came two months and 10 days ago, and I only worked for a month. We buy rice and chicken with our own money and eat here.”
Another said the consultants were two men who identified themselves as “Mustafa” and “Cihangir”. He said he had paid the pair €8,000 for the opportunity to come to Cyprus to work, and that in total the pair may have made as much as €13 million by importing workers from Bangladesh.
He said he had been paid 24,000TL (€632) for his first month’s work, before being paid just 7,000TL (€184) for his second month, and not being paid since. The north’s minimum wage is 33,926TL (€893) per month.
