CALL TO CYPRA FOR UNDECLARED WORKERS AT THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE

 Filenews 11 November 2020 - by Angelos Nikolaou

The Ministry of Labour yesterday issued a call to the director of Cypra for undeclared work at the slaughterhouse, where a total of 93 cases were recorded in the previous days. It was preceded by a complaint by the Department of Population and Migration of the Ministry of The Interior to the Police, which in turn informed the Ministry of Labour, which proceeded with the process of taking action against the company.

The call states the full the names of 79 foreigners who at first sight appear to be employed by the slaughterhouse operating for which no social security is paid. A total of 52 people, 27 asylum seekers, 14 students and 11 employees of another company are included in the List of the Department of Immigration to the Police.

Meanwhile, the director of Cypra, George Georgiou, complains that in recent months most asylum seekers who are promoted to work in food factories by the Ministries of Interior and Labour are of African origin and very young, with whom conciliation is made difficult both because of communication barriers and because of temperament.

He added that these individuals proved from the first two samples taken by the company that they were asymptomatic in COVID-19. Furthermore, it states that on Friday night, when separating the first 65 positive workers from the rest, no person with symptoms was identified to be transferred to EDEN in Tersefanou, resulting in the ambulance returning to its empty base. "An asymptomatic poor and poor asylum seeker who needs to work will not hesitate to answer and lie to the questionnaire (which according to protocol he fills out to enter the workplace) to secure a living," he says.

It further complains that positive political asylum seekers roam for days from place to place until they obtain a negative certificate that will allow them to find work. In the mean time, he points out, they move uncontrollably by dispersing COVID-19 into the community.

According to Mr. Georgiou, every day dozens of asylum seekers come and go from the wider area of Nicosia to the slaughterhouses, either directly by private cars (up to 5 people in each car together many times), or by bus to the stop opposite the petrol stations in Arediou and then by road to and from the slaughterhouses in Agios Ioannis and Agios Iliphotos. "Several of them uncontrollably visit one slaughterhouse after another and then other food industries in the area looking for work, simply leaving their details and then returning to their base waiting to take a negative test to send it to us expecting us to hire them," he says.

Under the current protocol, he says, we hire people with negative tests, "but obviously we are no longer able to control the privacy of any worker and based on the movement parameters of the workers mentioned above, the chances of covid-19 contamination are as high as outside our control."

It points out that the dispersion of COVID-19 in the area to passengers on buses and in private cars and trucks must be investigated immediately. He points out that too many drivers stopped and transported these workers of African origin from the intersection of Aredios to Agios Ioannis. "One of those good Samaritans who transported them by car to the slaughterhouses was the Veterinary Officer who tested first positive for COVID-19. From then on, the first veterinary officer infected the remaining five veterinary officers who tested positive, and each veterinary officer in turn infected the workers on the slaughter lines they inspected, and so on," he complains.

In the meantime, free random checks for Covid-19 were started yesterday and continue until Saturday on people who had contact with staff or other associates of the Cypra slaughterhouse in the area of Agioi Ilifotoi, in the Lower Monastery of Nicosia province. Sampling takes place in the covered parking lot located outside the slaughterhouse on a daily basis from 12:00pm to 4:00pm.