About 330 families living in caravans at the Governor’s Beach campsite in Limassol have been told to leave because the contract of the operator who has run the site for years has expired.
About 102 of the families use the caravans as permanent homes and could end up on the street if the decision is carried out, the House Refugees Committee heard. Residents pay rent of 1,500 euros a year.
Committee chairman Nikos Kettiros said parliament members learned of the issue after notices were posted at the site telling residents to leave. He asked the Turkish Cypriot Properties Management Service to brief the committee on the facts and say whether it could ensure residents would not be left on the street.
Some of the residents’ children attend school in Pentakomo, which residents say shows they have put down roots in the area.
DISY parliament member Giorgos Lysandrides, citing information from the Deputy Ministry of Tourism, said some people were renting out caravans through Airbnb. He said others, unaware that moves to clear the site were under way, had only recently bought caravans and were now left in limbo.
Direct Democracy Cyprus parliament member Dimitris Souglis told the committee that when the Turkish Cypriot owner of the land on which the campsite was built died, the land was sold to the person who had taken over as its manager, who then sold it to a foreign investor who intends to build a hotel. He added that the site of the new development is close to sensitive services in the area.
The committee heard separately that the site was assigned to the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) 30 years ago. When permanent structures began to appear alongside the caravans, the organisation said it could no longer manage the site, and management passed to Pentakomo community council.
