Refugee blocks of flats deemed unsuitable since 2000 are still being occupied 24 years later, putting residents' safety at risk, Parliament's Refugees Committee heard.
The Chairman of the Committee, AKEL Member of Parliament, Christos Christofidis, in his statements, stated that in 2000 a decision was taken by the Council of Ministers to rebuild neighborhoods whose apartment buildings were then deemed either unsuitable or that they were in such a bad condition that "it was better to build new ones than let's try to fix them."
He noted that in 2000 the residents had already lived in them for about 22-23 years and since then they have been waiting for 24 years and still they have not been reconstructed.
"We boldly asked today: 'Do you guarantee the safety of these apartment buildings given that we have been told that the last structural adequacy studies were done before 2000?' Unfortunately, we have not received an answer", he said, clarifying that these apartment buildings are part of a program that existed long before KTIZO and has not been implemented for 24 years.
He said the Commission asked for written answers on both the security of the apartment buildings and what will be done with the title deeds, as well as the timelines for when these reconstruction projects will be implemented.
He noted that on Tuesday the Minister of the Interior will attend the Committee for the KTIZO program and the issue will be discussed there as well.
The issue of the Strovolos II settlement was discussed within the Committee, however Mr. Christofidis stated that the matter concerns a total of 9 settlements throughout Cyprus.
Asked why these apartment buildings were not included in KTIZO, he said that KTIZO was a specialized program for apartment buildings that were inspected in 2020. "They were not inspected in 2020 because they had to be reconstructed since 2000," he said.
Responding to the reasons for the delay given by the Ministry of the Interior, he said that they invoked the freezing of the program in 2013, that the offers for some apartment buildings fell, that there were delays from SYL and EAC. "I understand all this. But here we are talking about the lives and safety of hundreds of people", he concluded.
Source: KYPE