Police holding cells across Cyprus are holding more than 260 people against a total capacity of about 160, and in Limassol the number of detainees rose from 60 to 90 in just one week.
The Limassol cells, which have room for only 34, are holding about 90 people, philenews understands. About 20 of them have been sentenced and should have been transferred to the Central Prisons to serve their sentences. The remaining 70 or so are on remand awaiting trial. As a result, Limassol police are making as many as 25 prisoner transfers to court on some days.
The Central Prisons appear unable to take in more detainees. According to philenews’s information, the prison has asked police divisions countrywide to transfer only four convicted or remand prisoners from each district.
Nicosia and Limassol are each recorded at 200% occupancy. At Aradippou station in Larnaca there are 40 detainees, while in Paphos about 75 people are held in cells with a capacity of 38. At Lakatamia, which has 38 places, there are about 85 detainees, and at Paralimni 40 people are held in space for eight.
Conditions
Overcrowding in Limassol has in some cases led to tension between detainees. Detainees are unable to exercise basic rights to communication, food and minimum living conditions, and some have to sleep on the floor because there are not enough beds. There are also sanitary problems with the sewage pits.
Police holding cells are meant for short stays, such as remand orders of a few days, and only for criminal investigations.
The situation has been described as a time bomb, with concerns that a fire under the current conditions would put lives at risk.
The Menogeia centre has not yet been used for temporary detention.
Union warning
Nikos Loizides, president of the police branch of the Isotita union, told philenews that overcrowding exceeds 200% and that, combined with understaffing, it creates an explosive mix, “a time bomb that nobody knows when will go off”.
He said there were two solutions: completing the holding cells at Menogeia as soon as possible so that remand prisoners could be moved there, and immediately implementing legislation on electronic tagging for remand prisoners, which was put to consultation at the House Legal Affairs Committee in 2025-2026.
He warned that every delay meant negative consequences after a tragic incident which, he said, was inevitable under current conditions.
