Residents of the village of Zygi were up in arms on Thursday over a government decision to house unaccompanied children from third countries at an abandoned military camp in the area.
In a post on its Facebook page, the village council accused the government of deciding to house the children in the abandoned barracks without even asking the community.
The residents, led by the head of the community, Georgia Michail, vowed to fight the decision with all means at their disposal.
“We will close roads, we won’t let anyone enter the barracks,” Michail said on the thread under the post. “Over our dead body. There will be a large protest with all the surrounding communities.”
The council said they had found about the decision by chance when Michail saw people inside the barracks and asked them what they were doing.
The council said that last year they had asked the government to hand over the area to be used by the community as a campsite and to host sports facilities. No response has been given so far.
“The (labour) minister was unyielding to the alternative options we had proposed,” to house the unaccompanied children, the post said.
A source at the labour ministry said the centre’s construction and operation was fully funded by the Council of Europe and the UN. It would be the fourth in Cyprus and could house up to 100 children.
The others are in Nicosia, two, and one in Larnaca, hosting over 100 children.
Asked about the alternatives the community leader was referring to, the source said she went to the ministry and asked: “why Zygi and not Asgata, or Mathiatis, or Lythrodontas where there are also abandoned barracks?”
The post Zygi residents irked over decision to house unaccompanied foreign children in community appeared first on Cyprus Mail.
Read more → https://cyprus-mail.com/2018/08/02/zygi-residents-irked-over-decision-to-house-unaccompanied-foreign-children-in-community/
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