A VIETNAMESE woman locked in a garage during the hours she was not working was fed only bread and water, immigrant support group KISA has claimed.

According to KISA (Action for Equality, Support, Anti-racism), as soon as the woman arrived at the house she was to work in her employers confiscated her travel documents and mobile phone, forced her to work 14-hour days seven days a week, and kept her locked in the garage whenever she was not working around the house, feeding her only bread and water.

The organisation has also blamed Limassol police for not doing enough to protect her. KISA said the woman paid $5,000 to work in Cyprus and was employed by a Limassol school teacher.

While the woman has now been released from her employer’s home, KISA claims police have failed to inform Social Welfare Services about the case as mandated by law and that they have ignored the relevant provisions of the country’s anti-trafficking legislation.

Police Spokesman Michalis Katsounotos countered that police could not find any evidence of the allegations. “The allegations were that she was locked in the garage. We went to the house and did not find anything,” he said.

Katsounotos also said that the woman did not make any allegations against her former employer in her complaint to police and in turn police have no legal right to prosecute her. “There is no evidence for us to make a prosecution against the employer,” he said.

According to KISA, the Migration Department agreed to help find the woman another job but refused to transfer her complaint to the police because it did not want to “complicate the situation further.”

KISA head Doris Polycarpou said that human trafficking for labour exploitation is becoming an increasingly common problem in Cyprus and that the Migration Department tends to address the labour aspects of those cases but ignores their trafficking aspects. “The Migration Office tries to transfer it from an issue of trafficking to a labour dispute issue,” he said. “Our impression is that they are trying to solve problems in relation to employment without recognising people as victims of trafficking.

“This is why they promised to find her new employment,” he added.

Polycarpou also claimed that the Migration Department has dealt with the same teacher in several incidents in the past. “The employer is known by them to constantly violate the rights of her employees,” he said.

Katsounotos said however that police “do not know anything” about her.

“Probably the woman from Vietnam didn’t accept the circumstances of the work and that is why she wants to abandon [the job], to find another employer. That is my opinion,” said Katsounotos.

Polycarpou offered a different opinion, saying that police chose to not charge the teacher “because it is too much for this society to take employers to court. Because if they convict an employer this employer will go to prison for three to five years, so they probably consider it too much.

“Or maybe it is because she is a Cypriot, or a teacher, or a woman. I don’t know,” he said.