Cyprus has taken decades to lift crimes connected with the sexual abuse and trafficking of women out of the ignorance gutter, such phenomena being the result of widely accepted patriarchal prejudices and stereotypes carried through the generations as norms and somehow managing to survive even today, when legislation, institutions and better awareness are supposed to protect women.
But not so. Sex trafficking persists unhindered, predominantly in the occupied north, where the nature of conditions prevents sex trafficking victims from seeking a way out, saving their lives. Their fate has once again come to the fore in tragic circumstances, following the death of 23 year old Moldavian Anastasia Melega, who was found dead on March 3rd where she lived and worked, a night club at the occupied Yerolakkos area, on the outskirts of Nicosia.
Her death, deemed as suicide by the occupied territories ‘police’ force, sparked social outrage, with political parties, women’s organisations, journalists and much of public opinion demanding the closure of sex trafficking night clubs, widely known in this part of the world as ‘cabarets’, hubs of female workers’ sexual slavery. There was also strong reaction in the government controlled areas by gender equality and violence victims organisations, cooperating with Turkish-Cypriot NGOs.
Some point to similarities between the case of Anastasia Melega and the death of 20 year old Russian dancer Oxana Rantseva, who was killed after falling off the fifth floor of a Limassol apartment block in late March 2001-when conditions for so called ‘artistes’ (really a subculture underworld name for sexual slaves), were atrocious in ‘cabarets’ across the free areas of the Republic. Much similar to the situation today in the occupied north.
Senior Researcher and Coordinator at the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies Dr.Christina Kaili said this was a ‘mirror of the Rantseva tragedy for which the ECHR condemned the Republic of Cyprus, charging the state with ‘failure to set in motion the necessary legal and administrative network of combatting human trafficking as well as the inadequate investigation by local authorities of the circumstances surrounding her death’.
Dr.Kaili said that women on both sides of the divide work together through the society of citizens to fight against the international crimes of human trafficking and sexual abuse of women. She notes that the lack of legal tools on the Turkish-Cypriot side is a major obstacle in prevention, supporting victims and going after the traffickers. African women are particularly vulnerable, as smugglers take advantage of ‘holes’ in the dividing line to bring them across and abuse them. ‘This is why bicommunal cooperation is necessary’, she added.
Speaking to Philenews, Turkish-Cypriot activist Damla Kodan, member of the Refugee Rights Association, said that the dividing line and the lack of an effective legal framework, make it easy for smuggling rings, this is why a Greek-Turkish Cypriot cooperation has been forged, with a network in place keeping the issue alive and exchanging information on the current challenges.
‘In cooperation with Caritas Cyprus, we are evaluating mechanisms on both sides, seeking ways of improving policies of recognising, protecting and supporting victims of sex trafficking’.
According to Nelson Neokleous executing board member of Cyprus Stop Trafficking, as long as the Cyprus issue is pending, cooperation to combat human trafficking is a tough proposition, while at the same time, this divide makes it much easier for criminals to actually work together.
TCypriot organisation Kayad noted that ‘many women who worked in night clubs all along the Nicosia-Morphou road are victims of human trafficking and are employed as sex slaves in horrendous circumstances, without much reaction from ‘authorities’.
‘Her blood is on your hands’, said ‘MP’ Dogus Derya of Anastasia’s death, adding that it is quite well documented and evident that ‘night clubs’ in the Yerolakkos area and across the north, are essentially operating as brothels. It’s the same illegal scope for casino owners, betting shops and drug dealers, given that the occupied territories are beyond the tenets of international law.
It is noted that ‘police officers’ in the north do not only remain indifferent to these crimes, but actually promote this phenomenon, without bringing anyone to justice.
‘These girls are subject to rape by both night club owners and ‘police’.
