He wasn’t waiting for any bus

Opinion sexual harassment He wasn’t waiting for any bus He Wasn't Waiting For Any Bus Relevant News He wasn’t waiting for any bus 29 July 2026 António Guterres knows the ABCs of the EU 29 July 2026 Moni fields sell for €55m in Cyprus’s biggest H1 land deal 29 July 2026 Marios Demetriou 29 July 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber A hot Sunday morning, and the elderly man stands at one of the stops at the central bus station in Ipirou Square (by the Solomos statue) in the centre of the capital, while around him a small, mismatched crowd comes and goes — mostly older men like him, and young Asian women, evidently domestic workers on their one day off. A gentle, smiling old man, the kind you find in old, half-torn black-and-white photographs, standing beside headscarved wives long since forgotten on some shelf, hanging on the damp wall of some lonely room. He first approached a small Filipina woman, a cap on her head, wearing tight blue jeans, and began speaking to her — mostly through gestures and signs, entirely unbothered by her negative reaction. The girl all but turned her back on him, but he kept pursuing her; she walked further down, but he followed. He only backed off when she shouted angrily, “go away!” — but he didn’t leave. He didn’t seem disappointed, discouraged, or angry. I’m not sure he understood what was happening around him, and I would certainly like to know what was happening inside him. I’ve written several times in recent years about this socially widespread and visible phenomenon — the sexual harassment of foreign women workers in Cyprus, even in public spaces, in squares, at bus stations, on city streets. It’s especially noticeable on Sundays, when they’re out in busy places during their few hours of rest. As Ester Beatty, president of the federation of Filipino organisations in Cyprus, has characteristically told me, girls from the Filipino community tell her they are sexually harassed on the streets, mainly by elderly Cypriot men who suggest paying them to have sex with them… I thought about the strangeness of it — vulnerable people, the kind society treats with prejudice, like the elderly, themselves treating other vulnerable people with prejudice, victimising them in turn — like foreign domestic workers. Meanwhile her bus arrived, and the young Filipina jumped on, while he was left staring, mouth half-open, at the vehicle’s exhaust fumes… Then he shuffled a little further along and approached the next young woman, who was Sri Lankan. Then her bus came too, and she climbed aboard and disappeared into its dark belly. That bus left too, but he went on approaching the women waiting at the stop for a while longer. The sun climbed almost directly overhead, nearing midday, but he was still there, apparently waiting for no bus at all… Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News António Guterres knows the ABCs of the EU Moni fields sell for €55m in Cyprus’s biggest H1 land deal Irresponsibility that must be punished Communities demand firing range closure following fire, years of problems EAC continues smart meter rollout across Cyprus in August Rehabilitation centre licensing gets underway across Cyprus Things to do on Wednesday, July 29 Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.