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Cyprus Refugees and Social Reconstruction
During and immediately after the 1974 invasion, the
Department
of Social Welfare Services undertook the housing,
clothing, and
feeding of the 200,000 refugees. The social needs stemming
from the
invasion were so great, however, that a new agency, the
Special
Service for the Care and Rehabilitation of Displaced
Persons, was
established in September 1974. Initially this agency
concentrated
on emergency relief by distributing food and clothing and
providing
medical assistance to the refugee camps. After a few
months, it
became clear that the thousands of displaced people would
not
return to their homes in the foreseeable future. As a
result, the
agency gradually expanded its scope, to aid the
reintegration of
the displaced into the new society forming in the
governmentcontrolled area, once their immediate physical survival
had been
ensured.
Housing for the wave of refugees was initially provided
by the
construction of twenty-three camps housing 20,000
displaced persons
in tents. Thousands, however, remained outside the camps
in shacks,
makeshift barracks, public buildings, and half-finished
houses. By
the end of 1975, the service had replaced its tents with
wooden
barracks, built by the occupants themselves with materials
or money
provided by the service.
Another initiative that contributed to solving the
refugee
problem was the Incentive Scheme for the Reactivation of
Refugees.
Instituted in 1976, this program provided financial
incentives to
help refugees get back on their feet. Funds were available
to all
refugees, but special emphasis was placed on certain
occupational
groups that could soon become economically self-reliant,
such as
farmers in remote areas. By fostering economic recovery,
the
program successfully combated a culture of despair in the
refugee
community and spared the government a considerable drain
on its
public assistance funds. Despite the magnitude of the
refugee
problem, the government concluded that by 1977 its
measures had
succeeded in rehabilitating all groups affected by the
invasion.
The Special Service for the Care and Rehabilitation of
Displaced Persons also undertook the construction of
low-cost
housing projects. In the 1975-86 period, 12,500 low-income
families
found housing in such projects, which also provided social
services
in the form of day-care centers, schools, and community
and
commercial centers. Other government programs that enabled
thousands of refugees to live in acceptable housing
involved "selfhousing " on either private or state-owned land. In the
period 1975-
86, nearly 10,500 houses were built on private properties,
and
11,000 on state-owned sites, at a cost to the government
of C£80
million. By 1987 more than 43,000 families, about 80
percent of
displaced persons, had been housed.
Once the refugee housing problem had been resolved, the
government extended its housing program to include lowand middleincome groups, who also faced serious housing problems
because of
a tremendous increase in the cost of land and
construction. Through
a combination of controls on the value of land and housing
loans,
the government succeeded in significantly improving
housing
conditions.
Also introduced were a number of programs such as child
care
and youth recreation centers, hostels for the aged,
assistance for
invalids, and welfare community centers, all of which were
incorporated in the existing services of the Department of
Social
Welfare Services. In this way, the objectives of social
policy were
redefined as the "systematization, institutionalization,
and
legalization of public assistance, and the reconstruction
of
personal, family and social life in the island."
Data as of January 1991
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