Cyprus has demonstrated "serious and sustained efforts" in combating human trafficking, according to the US State Department's 2024 Trafficking in Persons report released on Tuesday, maintaining Cyprus on Tier 1, indicating full alignment with minimum standards to eradicate trafficking.
However, the report highlighted the need for tougher prosecutions and sentences, noting a decline in the number of trafficking prosecutions compared to the previous year. In 2023, Cyprus initiated prosecutions against seven individuals, down from twelve in 2022, while continuing to prosecute fifty defendants from prior cases.
Despite an increase in trafficking convictions, the report raised concerns over suspended sentences frequently handed to traffickers. It noted a milestone where a perpetrator was convicted for receiving services from a trafficking victim.
The report also critiqued Cyprus' social welfare services for delays in responding to potential trafficking victim referrals, particularly outside regular working hours, and for not consistently referring victims to police for official identification procedures.
Urging Cyprus to intensify efforts, the report called for robust investigation, prosecution, and conviction of traffickers, emphasizing the imposition of substantial prison terms. It recommended judiciary training to ensure sentences reflect the severity of trafficking crimes and urged enhanced victim identification among vulnerable groups such as migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, and agricultural workers.
Foreign victims identified in Cyprus in 2023 hailed from Bangladesh, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Greece, India, Nepal, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Russia. Despite this, the government reduced the budget for rent allowance and financial assistance for trafficking victims by over €100,000 in 2023, down to €171,454 from €297,645 the previous year.
Regarding sex trafficking, the report detailed occurrences in private apartments, hotels, streets, bars, coffee shops, massage parlors, and cabarets known for commercial sex availability. Victims, primarily women from Eastern Europe, South and Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, are subjected to sex trafficking.
The report underscored how traffickers exploit short-term tourist visas to recruit young women from Ukraine and Russia into sex trafficking in bars and private establishments, often under false promises of marriage or work as barmaids or hostesses.
Additionally, migrant workers, mainly from North Africa, South, and Southeast Asia, face forced labor in Cyprus' agricultural sector, facilitated by exploitative practices by employment agencies.
Domestic workers from India, Nepal, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka are particularly vulnerable to trafficking, while asylum-seekers from Southeast Asia and Africa endure forced labor in agriculture and domestic servitude.
The report highlighted heightened vulnerability among unaccompanied children, children of migrants, Roma, and asylum-seekers to sex trafficking and forced labor. It also mentioned instances where Romani children were forced into begging and Cypriots with drug addiction or disabilities were coerced into criminal activities.
Earlier this year, Cyprus was identified by its interior ministry as a "destination country" for human trafficking, attributing this status to its geographical location and migration patterns. Stakeholders have raised concerns over police handling of trafficking cases and barriers preventing victims from seeking help.
In contrast, the US State Department's corresponding report for northern Cyprus indicated no convictions, prosecutions, investigations, or identified victims of trafficking during the reporting period.