Project Coordinator and Principal Researcher: Dr Nasia Hadjigeorgiou
Duration: January 2020 - December 2020
Overview
Foreign domestic workers are typically the female, third country nationals, who clean the homes of Cypriot families and care for their children, elderly and disabled members when relatives cannot, and the state will not, provide alternative support structures. This project examines foreign domestic workers as a particular category of migrants because of their sheer number and their extreme vulnerability.The project’s research objectives are toidentify the challenges faced by foreign domestic workers in Cyprus and to make recommendations on how such challenges can be addressed at a policy level.
Project Outputs
Research Paper
- Read the Research Paper of the project, which was published as part of the GreeSE working paper series, GreeSE Paper No174.
Reports
- Read the Report on the Status of Foreign Domestic Workers in Cyprus, Dr Hadjigeorgiou co-authored with the Cyprus Ombudsman here.
- Read the Policy Brief Helping those who help us: Some guidance for policy makers in the Republic of Cyprus here.
- Read the Policy Report Helping those that help us: Challenges faced by foreign domestic workers in the Republic of Cyprus here.
Leaflet
A leaflet explaining foreign domestic workers’ rights in their native languages has been created.
- You can find the leaflet in English, Nepalese, Philipino, Punjabi, Sinhala and Vietnamese here.
Events
- Dr Hadjigeorgiou and Dr Alkiviadou delivered a training session on the rights of foreign domestic workers to members of the Cyprus police force.
Read more about the event here.
- Dr Hadjigeorgiou presented the findings of the Project at the Research Seminar The Invisible Impact of Frozen Conflicts: a case study of foreign domestic workers in Cyprus on 16 February 2021.
Watch the video here.
Listen to the podcast here.
Blog Articles
- Read the blog post Foreign Domestic Workers in Cyprus: the unseen impact of the frozen conflict
Interviews
- Listen to the interview Dr Hadjigeorgiou gave to Ms Saskia Constantinou and the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation Classic Radio station 88.2 on the vulnerabilities of foreign domestic workers in Cyprus here.
Press
- Decent work for Migrant Domestic Workers: An Unrealised Promise?, Natalie Alkiviadou, 15 February 2021
- The invisible foreign domestic worker, Dr Nasia Hadjigeorgiou, The Justice Project, 7 October 2020
The Research results were reported in several newspapers in Cyprus:
- Domestic helpers work 40% more hours than contract requires, Cyprus Mail, 18 December 2020
- 40% περισσότερο εργάζονται οι οικιακές βοηθοί στην Κύπρο, Phileleftheros, 19 December 2020
-Συνθήκες δουλείας για οικιακές βοηθούς – Δεν πληρώνονται υπερωρίες, καθαρίζουν δύο και τρία σπίτια, Πολίτης News, 19 December 2020
Research Team
Project Coordinator and Principal Researcher: Nasia Hadjigeorgiou, Assistant Professor in Transitional Justice and Human Rights, School of Law, UCLan Cyprus
Researcher: Natalie Alkiviadou, Lecturer in EU Law and Human Rights, School of Law, UCLan Cyprus