New Project Launch: A Systemic Analysis of the Impact of COVID-19 on Refugees, Migrants and Asylum-Seekers (RMAs)in Cyprus
Project Phoenix will shortly embark on a transdisciplinary project that seeks to understand the impact COVID-19 has had in Cyprus, on the migrant community. Sarah Morsheimer, our new Researcher and Hrishabh Sandilya, who leads our Cyprus operations, will be undertaking the research in collaboration with a number of local partners.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reached nearly every country on the planet, bringing with it unique challenges and significant changes to our ways of life. These challenges are particularly dire for refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers. Not only do RMAs often face increased vulnerability to infectious disease due to poor and overcrowded living conditions, but they also generally lack the adequate protection and necessary tools and resources to help them successfully navigate ever-changing government mandates and a global economic downturn.
Following the first documented case of COVID-19 in Cyprus on 9 March 2020, the Republic of Cyprus, like many other countries in Europe and around the globe, introduced emergency measures to contain the spread of the virus. The measures included confinement and restrictions on freedom of movement, the closure of public institutions and facilities, and social distancing requirements, among others. These actions have had personal, public, economic, and social implications on the human rights and living conditions of RMAs in Cyprus. Primarily, these have included arbitrary detention at overcrowded facilities in poor conditions, the loss of personal freedoms, the loss of jobs and livelihoods, restrictions in access to healthcare, delays in social welfare payments, a lack of access to technology and limited access to the legal system.
Project Phoenix is launching a transdisciplinary project to document the impact that COVID-19 and the subsequent government response has had on RMAs in Cyprus, and to offer practical and effective recommendations based on our findings. The project will consist of a factual, timeline-based primer on COVID-19 related decrees and events in Cyprus that impacted RMAs, a qualitative survey and interview-based study on the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on migrants in Nicosia, Larnaca, Limassol, and Paphos, and a white paper on potential solutions that seek to ameliorate the impact of the crisis on RMAs in Cyprus.
The study will be informed by expert interviews with case workers at humanitarian organizations and government officials. It will also informed by a gender analysis, to ensure gender inclusiveness. Finally, a part of the white paper will be published in cooperation with the Cyprus Energy Lab, focusing on the promise of the European New Green Deal in the delivery of systemic change.
Through this work, we aim to push for policy and narrative change around migrant and refugee issues in the COVID-19 era and beyond. We hope to link Project Phoenix’s experience on the ground with systems-change and social innovation, to this project to offer practical, impactful solutions to the challenges that RMAs now face.
As we move forward with our research, we plan to share regular updates to inform the community and to raise awareness about the issues.
Project Phoenix is a young European NGO and social enterprise working to empower migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in an urban setting, using the best of a social innovation playbook. Premised on the pillars of sustainability, economic empowerment through entrepreneurship, socio-cultural integration through professional-skills training and mentorship, we leverage our global networks and fill gaps that legacy institutions and international organisations are often unable to. We are limber, agile and use a systems-thinking, non-prescriptive approach to present feasible solutions.
Project Phoenix is currently running a Pilot Project on the ground in Cyprus. Motivated individuals apply to join as fellows to receive assistance through skills training and entrepreneurial support. Fellows contribute to their local community through the establishment of their own social enterprise which allows them to pay it forward. This innovative approach encourages the sustainable empowerment of refugees and migrants and the development of a circular and sustainable economic and social movement on the island.
