Cyprus police cells hold 77 inmates in space built for 40

Local human rightspolicesafetyTop News Cyprus police cells hold 77 inmates in space built for 40 Fulakes Kagkela Diadromos 1536x745 Relevant News Cyprus police cells hold 77 inmates in space built for 40 11 August 2026 EDEK opens leadership race after all four bids validated 11 August 2026 Isotita takes fight over Maltezos dismissal to court and parliament 11 August 2026 Michalis Hadjivasilis 11 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Overcrowding is not only a problem for Cyprus’s prisons. Police holding cells are now packed beyond capacity too, with detainees, both remand and convicted, sleeping on the floor and going without basic rights. Cell officers describe the situation as dire, flagging hygiene, safety and human rights problems. The Lakatamia police station holding cells are a stark example: built for 40 people, they are now holding 77, a pattern also seen at the Limassol cells. Detainees who should get two exercise periods a day are now being kept locked up because of overcrowding and security concerns, which runs against recommendations from the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). The problem has worsened as prison overcrowding has forced the Justice Ministry to transfer convicted prisoners into police holding cells instead. Police, in turn, are having to move suspects arrested in Nicosia to cells in Paphos or Paralimni, where space is available. Detainees rounded up in illegal immigration operations are now sent to Limnes, unless they are also suspected of criminal offences. According to Nikos Loizides, head of the Police Branch of the Isotita union, convicted and remand prisoners who should be in prison now fill 70 to 80% of the roughly 160 holding cell places available across Cyprus. He told philenews this overcrowding shows police regulations and custody rules are being breached. Loizides said the union has proposed solutions, including using the Mennoyia building to house remand and convicted prisoners currently held in police cells. He said daily arrests and detentions are pushing capacity at police holding cells to around 130%, numbers he called dangerous, with risks of unrest, poor custody conditions and accidents. He said the situation is dangerous for everyone’s safety and health. “It’s not for us as a police union to give orders,” he said, adding that the union was simply flagging the risk to people’s lives and proposing an immediate solution. He said decisions needed to be taken immediately, not in the short or long term, and that arrests could not simply stop, so a solution had to be found. He pointed to a recent fire at the Limassol holding cells as a warning sign that should already have prompted action. The police station’s own record A note entered in the Lakatamia police station’s logbook captured the situation in stark terms. As of August 9, the note recorded 77 detainees held at Lakatamia, meaning the number of excess detainees exceeded 110% of the cells’ capacity. It said this had happened on the instructions of the responsible assistant chief, relayed through duty officers, and with the knowledge of the police director and his deputy, who are aware of the ongoing risks to the safety and orderly running of the holding cells, as well as the impossibility of fully applying police regulations. The note said the situation had been repeatedly raised at every level, warning that under current staffing and conditions, safety risks for staff, detainees and the cells themselves were being maximised rather than reduced, and that orderly running of the cells could no longer be guaranteed. It added that detainees’ human rights could not be fully guaranteed either. Despite repeated instructions for heightened vigilance, the note said none of this could be assured. It warned that overcrowding was creating further knock-on problems, often unpredictable and hard to resolve at any level, and asked that everything possible be done to protect the safety and rights of staff and detainees alike. It also called for overcrowding to be factored into readiness planning, to prevent unrest, the smuggling of dangerous or illegal items, and other malicious acts, as well as to ensure readiness for emergency evacuations. What the officer in charge points out The officer responsible for the holding cells also renewed, in his note, calls to update the fire safety and evacuation plan, and to carry out security upgrades that have repeatedly been requested and remain outstanding. He said recommendations from an official 2024 report on holding cell safety and detainees’ rights were not being implemented and were being breached, adding that this was being raised almost daily, in writing and verbally, without any sign of improvement. He said that, given rising overcrowding, all these problems were intensifying rather than easing, and repeated the need for the fullest possible application of health protocols, noting that overcrowding could not have been factored into the workplace risk assessment when it was drawn up. He called for an urgent update of the plans and a review of the situation. The note amounts to a cry of distress over conditions created by the buildup of detainees in a space designed to hold half as many people as it currently does. 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