18th of December was proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations as International Migrants Day in December 2000 (A/RES/55/93), the same day in 1990 that the Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Rights of All Migrant Workers and (A/RES/45/158).
In response to the multiple challenges and problems they face, the migrant and refugee communities in Cyprus along with civil society organisations are commemorating this important day by organising a protest on Sunday, 15 December 2019, in Nicosia.
The government’s efforts to blame migrants for the serious problems the Cypriot society is faced with, the march intends to respond with determination and to claim migrants’ equal access to the labour market, social insurance benefits and health care.
Against the intensifying and ever increasing incidents of gender-based violence, the march will demand that drastic measures be taken for effectively combating gender-based and domestic violence against women in general and migrant and refugee women in particular.
To the new policies of the government for linking migration to terrorism and the new practices for militarising citizens’ everyday life, and through fear and stigmatising migrants as a threat to our safety and identity, the march will express its clear opposition to the policies instigating and fostering racism and will demand measures for upgrading the rundown areas and improving the quality of life of all the inhabitants of these areas.
With the march, the organisers call on everyone, migrants and refugees, civil society organisations, activists and society at large to join the march en mass in order to declare our support and solidarity and dynamically demand equal rights for all.
The march will start at 11.00 in the morning from the Markou Drakou junction / Paphos Gate, wherefrom it will proceed to the Ministry of Labour, Welfare and Social Insurance and then on to the Ministry of Interior. It will end at the Tripoli Park by Solomou Square, where a cultural event will take place, with music, dancing and food from various countries.
For the declaration with the demands of the march click here.
Nicosia, 13.12.2019
