A group of civil society organisations on Friday demanded an apology by Interior Minister Nicos Nouris over misleading statements he made about the number of people in Pournara with HIV and tuberculosis.
Specifically, the AIDS Solidarity Movement, Generation for Change CY, the Cyprus Family Planning Association, and the Cyprus Refugee Council issued a joint statement saying that HIV must not be used as a tool to cultivate fear and racism and urged the Minister to apologise in public.
During statements to state broadcaster CyBC on Thursday, Nouris falsely claimed that 1,100 people at the migrant reception centre had HIV and 800 tuberculosis.
Later on the same day, the Ministry issued a clarifying announcement saying the statement was false.
In their announcement, the organisations said that the numbers mentioned by the minister are greatly exaggerated.
“The numbers mentioned by the Minister, allegedly referring to persons who requested international protection and live at the Pournara Emergency Reception Centre, are completely wrong,” they said.
“According to national statistics, released through ECDC, the total number of people living with AIDS, Cypriots or foreigners, treated at the Grigorion Clinic, does not exceed 1100. Furthermore, during the past two years, approximately 150-170 new cases are diagnosed annually,” they added.
In his statements to the media, Nouris attempted to link people requesting international protection with infectious diseases, using the phrase, “it is known from health checks that they carry with them infectious diseases.”
The organisations stated that Nouris’ rhetoric is “unacceptable since it maintains and contributes to the perpetuation of xenophobia and racism, while, at the same time, it stigmatises people who are already in a position of vulnerability, as well as people with chronic illnesses.”
More particularly on HIV, the announcement noted that “we know that the virus cannot be transmitted through social contact, cohabitation, embrace, saliva, or the shared use of kitchen utensils, toilets, swimming pools and bathrooms.”
The organisations also urged the Interior Ministry to refrain from taking actions that might contribute to the further marginalisation of people in Pournara and to start taking their vulnerability seriously.
