In reply to criticism and accusations about the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases found at the slaughterhouse, CYPRA issued an announcement stating the following:
Most of the asylum seekers in the Republic of Cyprus, pushed by the Ministries of Labor and Interior for work at food factories are of African origin and communication with them is difficult.
These workers tested negative to the first COVID-19 tests. However it was later proved that asymptomatic workers were living in the same quarters. It is now known the positive asylum seekers were going from one laboratory to the next in order to secure a negative certificate and in the meantime they were infecting others.
Dozens of asylum seekers (without a negative certificate) come and go every day in the wider Nicosia area either directly in private cars or by buses until Arediou and then by autostop. Many of them visit one slaughterhouse after another as well as food industries in the area seeking jobs.
According to protocols we may hire people with testing negative but we are in no position to check their private lives.
The spreading of the virus is huge among the people who travel with them in buses or drivers who give them a lift. One such person was the veterinary inspector who tested positive to COVID-19. He then, in turn infected other inspectors and they infected employees in slaughterhouses.
According to information with laboratories we cooperated with, the situation with asylum seekers is out of control and unless they stay in houses of the slaughter house they have to undergo rapid tests half an hour before going into the factory.
CEO of CYPRA George Georgiou
Read More:Â 92 cases of COVID-19 in a slaughterhouse
