As Mr Anastasiades rightly notes, he visited the reception centre in Pournara today. Pournara, of course, is not a matter of communication management. It is a question of the state's compliance with its international obligations, a question of humanity and solidarity. And it is a matter of urgency because hundreds of people will continue to live - as they have been living for weeks and months now - under tents, in the cold and rain.
He stresses that in all the past years "excellent work" has not been done in Pournara. The exact opposite has happened. From a reception centre it was allowed to become a focus of humanitarian crisis, with living conditions that no child, no human being deserves. It was allowed to become a huge storehouse of human misery. With unaccompanied children living in containers. With sewage flooding the place. Even with inadequate food. And all this while the Cypriot state was receiving tens of millions of euros from the EU to ensure humane reception conditions.
"We hope that even now - after so many years that we, as well as other bodies and independent institutions have been pushing for solutions - that effective and humane policies for the reception, accommodation and integration of refugees will be implemented. AKEL will continue to closely monitor the course of government policy and whether the current announcements will finally be implemented in practice," he concludes.
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