Apostolos Kouroupakis
"What’s the goal here? To have food on the table for a day or two, or to ensure there's always food on the table?"
That’s what a Social Welfare Services (SWS) official told me when I asked about the Dromolaxia case—the one involving the abuse of five children. And once again, we find ourselves in shock… Once again, public opinion is stunned, the local community is speechless, and, as always, no one had any idea what was going on.
The problem is, no one ever takes responsibility for what happens in the unseen corners of Cyprus.
I can’t help but see the parallels with the tragic case of Stylianos back in 2019. Years have passed since then, and plenty of promises were made. To be fair, both Zeta Emilianidou, when she served as Minister of Labor, Welfare, and Social Insurance, and later Anastasia Anthousi, as Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, had begun working intensively on reforming the SWS. They listened to social workers, they pushed past the internal obstacles—yes, the resistance came from within—and they both seemed determined to bring about change.
And then, everything changed. The little fiefdoms within the SWS won. Every political decision or attempt at structural reform was swallowed up, and over time, social workers were reduced to handling welfare benefits, processing Minimum Guaranteed Income (MGI) applications, dealing with appeals—and cases like this one? Well, they just kept piling up, without proper evaluation.
Let’s not forget: this particular family had been under the SWS’s watch for about six years, since 2018. And yet, it took all these years for us to learn what was really happening behind those closed doors. So, who exactly failed to do their job? The caseworker assigned to it? The SWS as a whole? Its leadership? The various ministers responsible for labor and welfare over the years? The heads of the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare?
There’s no clear answer. Is everyone to blame for everything? Maybe, but accountability should be assigned accordingly. The problem is, no one ever takes responsibility for what happens in the unseen corners of Cyprus. No one at the SWS or the Deputy Ministry today seems to be asking whether proper case assessment tools exist, let alone whether they’re being used. Instead, services are constantly outsourced to external contractors and handed off to NGOs—without any real oversight or control.
Where exactly did the €48 million allocated for the grand SWS restructuring since 2009 go? A department that still operates with a pre-Independence British-era model, despite all the money thrown at it? Why, after all this spending, is the SWS still unable to function as a modern welfare service?
Now, I’m not saying that social dysfunction can ever be completely eradicated. But shouldn’t we at least try? Shouldn’t this country, and the political leaders overseeing social welfare, finally grasp that they hold real lives in their hands—lives that are often damned, desperately clinging to the tiniest sliver of hope to escape their misery? And let’s not kid ourselves—this isn’t an isolated case. There are more. We’re just waiting for the next scandal to explode.
The SWS, due in large part to its own leadership, has become a rudderless service with no scientific direction. It lacks the necessary tools, and its staff is left unable to perform their duties—not because they are incompetent, but because their hands are tied or because they are drowning in bureaucratic tasks that have nothing to do with social work. To be clear, yes, there are employees who simply don’t care and are completely unfit for the job—but even they aren’t being held accountable.
And so, I’ll repeat what I wrote back in 2019:
"At the end of the day, Madam Minister [or rather, Madam Deputy Minister, as is the case now], being efficient in processing welfare payments isn’t enough. Your job is to ensure the well-being of even the most ‘damned’ members of society—including the innocent ones caught in the crossfire. And Madam Kyratzi, please, finally acknowledge the critical nature of your position. If you can’t, then simply resign."
*This article was translated and edited from its Greek original
