Esele closes the razor and sprinkles talcum powder on John's freshly shaved face, who is peering at it in the mirror.
Out the window, Daniel nods to him in approval.
“These barbers are good.
I just shaved two minutes ago”, he says, passing a hand over the back of his neck in a square in the old center of Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus.
From the nearest bench, Blessing and Ibrahim taunt him.
All four are Nigerian and prefer not to reveal their real names (like the rest of the interviewees).
They are around 25 years old, they have recently arrived in Cyprus and the Dignity Center, in the old town of Nicosia and the place where Esele shaves them, is also a point of reference for them.
Blessing has come to do the shopping.
“Here there is a market every day, you can choose what you want”.
They joke and talk about the future with a torrent of words.
“I want to go to Italy, to Naples;
it's pretty and I have a lot of friends there,” Blessing says.
But as soon as they are asked how things are going in Cyprus, the answer is a lapidary “fine”.
On the island of Cyprus, located off the coast of Lebanon and Turkey and the gateway to Europe in the eastern Mediterranean, the arrival of irregular migrants has increased exponentially.
Between January and July 2022, irregular entries grew by 122% compared to the same period of the previous year, according to the latest report on migration and asylum from the European Commission.
The country was already in 2021 —the latest data available— the EU State that received the highest number of asylum applications per inhabitant (1,480 per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 178 in Germany or 153 in France, also per 100,000 population).
But the island has now become a trap for migrants, exploited as labor while the deadlines to regularize their situation are extended - according to the Cyprus Refugee Council,
The division of the island, due to the war that ravaged it between the 1950s and 1970s, also aggravates the situation.
Since 1974, following the Athens-backed military coup and invasion by the Turkish armed forces, the population has lived ethnically separated by the Green Line, and there are two de facto independent state entities.
In the south is the Republic of Cyprus, a majority Greek Cypriot-speaking member of the European Union, though still outside the Schengen zone.
In the north is the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey and considered an occupation by the Republic of Cyprus.
Both governments use migrants as a new argument to reinforce the north-south division, which continues to be a central issue in the management of power.
In fact,
I'd like to be a jiu-jitsu teacher, but asylum seekers are only allowed to do certain jobs
Dawood (not his real name)
At the end of the day, Nicosia's Solomou Square central bus station fills with foreign workers.
A continuous parade of work clothes, safety shoes and pants splattered with paint and lime enlivens the square at dusk.
Not far from there, on the fourth floor of a building, Cypriot Corina Drousiotou, 46, is sitting at her desk in the office of the Refugee Council, of which she is coordinator.
“Cyprus is a country with a small population with a high educational level that needs manpower.
In fact, from 2004 to today the arrival phases of emigrants have varied depending on the economic situation”.
A group of people wait for the central office of the Dignity Center of the NGO Refugee Support to open.
One of the organization's mottos is the firm belief that “everyone has the right to dignity”.
The NGO focuses its activities on respecting people as individuals, giving them choices, offering practical help with various activities and creating the supportive communities that migrants need to help them rebuild their lives in a new place.Giacomo Sini
View of the Center for the First Reception and Registration of Emigrants in Pournara, in Cyprus.
The Center was created in 2019 with a capacity for about 1,000 people.
Currently, the camp houses almost 3,000.
Overcrowding has worsened the living conditions of its population.Giacomo Sini
View of the Pournara camp, in Cyprus, from the A9 motorway.Giacomo Sini
Square from which Ledra street starts, the main artery of the historic center of Nicosia.
Hundreds of asylum seekers living in the southern part of Cyprus gather here every day.Giacomo Sini
Corina Drouisiotou, coordinator of the NGO Cyprus Refugee Council, which is dedicated to safeguarding, protecting and defending the rights of vulnerable groups on the island and promoting their effective integration into the host society.Giacomo Sini
Paul, a British volunteer from the NGO Apoyo a los Refugiados, collaborates with his partner in writing the curriculum of one of the asylum seekers in Cyprus.Giacomo Sini
Hélène, a Luxembourgish volunteer with the NGO Refugee Support, jokes with Salieu, an asylum seeker from Sierra Leone.Giacomo Sini
Youssef, a young Iranian asylum seeker, together with one of the volunteers from the NGO Refugee Support write a curriculum.
This requirement is essential for the young person to be able to integrate into the labor sector.Giacomo Sini
Dividing wall in Nicosia, near the Palace Ledra hotel, a few meters from the United Nations area that separates the southern part of the city, administered by the Republic of Cyprus, from the Araba Ahmet district, administered by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus .Giacomo Sini
Des Prendegast and Armin Dozo, two United Nations Police (UNPOL) agents participating in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) mission, during a day of surveillance in the demilitarized zone, near the Lourojina/Akincilar town separating the two republics of Cyprus.
In the background, a Turkish military post.Giacomo Sini
Esele (not his real name), a Congolese asylum seeker, and Sadou, from Cameroon, offer their barber services free of charge at the Centro Dignidad to those who ask for it.
The NGO Refugee Support provides this service once a week for five hours.Giacomo Sini
Sadou, a young Cameroonian asylum seeker, cuts the hair of a person who has come to the Dignity Center of the NGO Refugee Support to use this service for free.
Giacomo Sini
Oxi Square, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Every day, hundreds of asylum seekers wait for someone to come and offer them work.Giacomo Sini
In Cyprus, many asylum seekers work as delivery drivers for various companies that offer the service.
In the photo, a boy crosses the Paphos Gate, one of the points in the city where the territory of the Republic of Cyprus (on the right) is separated by a few meters from that of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus ( left).Giacomo Sini
A volunteer from the NGO Refugee Support works at the Mercado Dignidad, a service that is offered five days a week.
To access the store, applicants must register.
Each user has a free shopping card with 840 points (100 points = 1 euro).
The card is only valid one day a week, in order to guarantee that there are the same number of users each day.
Those who use the service can buy any of the available products to their liking.Giacomo Sini
Dawood, an Afghan asylum seeker from the Hazara ethnic group shops at the Dignity Market.
In order to make the purchase, Dawood has to travel from Limassol to Nicosia and travel 170 kilometers in one day.Giacomo Sini
Mural with the phrase "Welcome, refugees" on the dividing wall of Nicosia, Cyprus.
The wall separates the southern part, administered by the Republic of Cyprus, from the United Nations buffer zone.
At the same time, it acts as a barrier between the northern area, governed by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and the southern area.Giacomo Sini
A view of Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, divided into two zones since 1974 by the so-called Green Line.
To the north is the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and to the south, the Republic of Cyprus.Giacomo Sini
Half an hour before the Dignity Center opens, some 20 people are already waiting at the door.
“Here asylum seekers have access to work and social assistance when they are unemployed.
We also help people fill out their CVs and apply for work permits,” explains Hélène Verdickt, 27, from Luxembourg, deputy coordinator of Refugee Support, the NGO that runs the center.
Dawood and Rahman, two Afghans in their 30s, have arrived by bus from Limassol.
“I would like to be a jiu-jitsu teacher, but asylum seekers are only allowed to do certain jobs,” says the first.
On the table is the official job list, and it's certainly not a wish list.
“I've always been an accountant,” Rahman explains.
“I have no experience in anything else.
I tried to work as a waiter,
but since I had no preparation, after three days they fired me without paying me.
And if you refuse a job, they exclude you from aid ”, he laments.
There are no refugee aid centers in Limassol, and the assistance provided by state offices is insufficient.
"That's why we came to Nicosia," concludes Rahman.
Dawood also puts chocolate cream in his basket.
“Mercado Dignidad is organized so that individuals and families can choose what they want,” explains Paul Emery, a 65-year-old British volunteer.
On the shelves are tomato sauce, pasta and rice, as well as potatoes, onions and seed oil.
“Many take things that don't need to be cooked, like canned food, because they don't have access to a kitchen.”
The Government accuses the northern authorities of using the emigrants to exert pressure.
It is clear that the issue of emigration plays a role in relations between the north and the south
Corina Drousiotou, coordinator of the Refugee Center
In the street there are still people waiting to enter.
“The work they do here is important,” says Salieu Gbla, a 29-year-old asylum seeker from Sierra Leone, looking away from his computer screen.
“Being able to choose gives you a bit of normalcy.”
Gbla, the only one authorizing his name to be published, left the country in 2020 after the LGTBIQ and disabled community of which he was a part was violently expelled from the land where he lived.
He himself was beaten and detained along with many of his friends.
He has been in Cyprus for two years.
"My asylum application has not been processed yet," he complains, "and for someone like me, with a physical disability, it is even more difficult, because it is not recognized as a condition for applicants."
The young migrant suffered serious leg injuries as a child, and since then he has had great difficulty moving.
"You have to work, but you can't," he continues, "so you stay locked up at home."
That is why in July 2022 he created the Inclusive Society for People with Disabilities.
"It is the first association that deals with these problems," explains Gbla.
“It is necessary because nobody even talks about our situation.”
This fall he started studying Computer Science at the University of Nicosia and was awarded a scholarship.
A volunteer from the NGO Refugee Support works at the Mercado Dignidad.Giacomo Sini
"The division of the island has direct consequences on the situation of migrants and also on the asylum process," explains Drousiotou.
According to the Government, in 2021, 80% of the illegal entries of asylum seekers occurred through the Green Line, a figure that coincides with the migration report of the European Union.
"Many arrive in the north by plane with study or work visas, and are often victims of scams or traffickers," denounces Drousiotou, the coordinator of the Refugee Council.
“The government accuses the northern authorities of using emigrants to exert pressure.
It is clear that the question of emigration plays a role in relations between the north and the south, but the situation is not like that of Belarus in 2021 ″, she adds.
Yousef also goes to the Dignity Center.
He is Iranian, he is 24 years old, and he recently left Pournara.
“It was terrifying.
There was a lack of medicine, the food made you sick, and the stores were overcrowded,” he says.
He tells that he had to flee his country because he is a Christian.
"With what he's going through there now, he'd surely be dead."
The fear that he carries with him made things more difficult in the first days of his stay in Cyprus: “I used to stay at home, like when you have cave syndrome, he was apathetic.
But now I feel better and I'm looking for work”.
In 2021, the Government began to install barbed wire along the Green Line and established agreements with Israel to put up surveillance
Corina Drousiotou, coordinator of the Refugee Center
Dozens of asylum seekers sit on the wall, under the branches of the trees.
Every morning they go to the Oxi square roundabout in the hope that someone will take them away for a day's work.
“Cases of illegal work and exploitation are frequent.
It is presented as an extraordinary situation, but the problems of emigrants are simple: work and home, ”he acknowledges.
In Cyprus there are some 30,000 pending asylum applications.
"Arrivals began to increase in 2017," explains the coordinator of the Refugee Council.
"Until then, the refugee emergency was absent from public debate."
In March 2020, the southern government —with the excuse of the pandemic— began to reject migrants at sea, despite the fact that arrivals by boat are only part of it.
In 2021,
"Considering the Green Line an external border is something totally new in Cyprus," says Drousiotou.
“A lot of people are worried that we are heading towards a deepening division, and the emigrants seem to be just a pretext.”
One of the barbers has just passed the broom across the floor and laughs.
"At first no one wanted me to cut their hair, but now they stand in line."
Sadou Ngono, a 32-year-old Cameroonian, works as a barber every Friday at the Dignity Center.
"People need to feel good, fixed, for themselves and for others."
Currently, Ngono is unemployed, but he worked for two years in a small aluminum factory.
“Even though I asked, they didn't make me a contract, and the salaries were miserable.
There are no unions dealing with these issues, so I left.
It is better to make deliveries by bicycle”, specifies Ngono.
He loves music, and says that when he sings in the parks with his musician friends, the people on the island only stop to listen to them if they play Greek music.
“Some Cypriots don't like refugees, but many make money from them,” he clarifies.
Outside it's pouring with rain.
Sitting at her desk, Drousiotou explains that "in Cyprus, as everywhere, there are policies whose objective is to make these people suffer so that they leave."
The Pournara First Reception Center, where those who enter illegally have to seek asylum, is about 20 kilometers from the capital.
Applicants are supposed to stay there for 72 hours, but normally they spend between 45 and 60 days, which leads to serious overcrowding problems.
One month after applying for asylum, at that point outside the center, it is possible to register at the Employment Office, but you need a residence address.
“Many Cypriots do not rent to asylum seekers, and having a residence becomes a big problem,” continues Drousiotou.
"Outside the center there are even people who sell addresses."
A police car stops at the roadside, 100 meters from the gates of the center of Pournara.
The agent yells out the window: "What are you doing here?"
He gets out of the vehicle, and while checking the documents, he says without losing his authoritative attitude: “Journalists?
Take the photos and leave.
Don't talk to anyone."
You can follow PLANETA FUTURO on
,
and
, and subscribe
here
to our 'newsletter'
.