Delivery drivers are easy victims of racists – and the underworld

For months, some of the most lowly paid members of society have been forced to make a difficult choice: go out to work for peanuts and risk getting beaten up; or stay at home and lose out on earnings they desperately need.

Either way, delivery drivers are paying the price of nationwide inaction to clampdown on racism.

The question of how things got to this point is multi-faceted, according to experts the Cyprus Mail spoke to. Ranging from institutional racism, wealth inequalities, crime and youths feeling they have no prospects, delivery drivers have become easy victims, and racism has meant no one is held accountable.

“Everything is helpless for delivery drivers,” says Limassol-based driver Rajesh. “I have no hope that police will do anything.”

Rajesh, who has spoken to the Cyprus Mail for months over the escalating violence delivery drivers have faced, has long shared the challenges in getting police to take complaints seriously.

“Nothing has changed for us. We are beaten, and nobody even stops to help us.”

Earlier this week, Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis, speaking after a meeting with the labour minister and the police chief on the issue, said that there have been 18 reports of attacks against delivery drivers this year – the vast majority in Limassol. There have been several arrests of mostly young men for these attacks but, as yet, no sentencing.

Political analyst Christophoros Christophorou says the official number of attacks is the tip of the iceberg.

There is a large amount of underreporting and everyone knows it.

Attacks are not always in the form of beatings. A Nicosia-based delivery driver who spoke on condition of anonymity says every other day, drivers have their bikes stolen or damaged.

“No one cares about us. No one from the government listens.”

And if the violence was not enough, the delivery drivers shared that in the past three years, their wages have in fact gone down.

“Three years ago, a short ride would mean €3.40 per order. Today it is €1.46.” On top that, fleet companies take up to 37 per cent from their wages.

“We are left with 50 or 70 cents.”

In the past few weeks, government and police have stressed they will take action over the matter. The former has even said racist attacks have no place in Cyprus. But according to Christophorou and professor of sociology, social sciences and law at the University of Nicosia Nicos Trimikliniotis, racism is in fact institutional in Cyprus.

And while police are the force called on to combat the racist attacks, it is the same police that migrants are afraid of.

According to Trimikliniotis, migrants have been attacked by police and they are understandably afraid of officers. The problem is so prevalent that Cyprus’ former police chief Stelios Papatheodorou admitted that racism is an issue within the force. So how can they be the ones to fight it?

Christophorou reflects that attacks against delivery drivers have been reported for the past three to four years, though it has become all the more prominent now. In fact, attacks in Limassol are an almost daily occurrence.

But the rhetoric when it first started happening, was that police dismissed any racist elements. “Limassol’s police spokesman would say it was youths doing this for fun, or that it was to steal the money,” Christophorou says. The element of racism was dismissed.

As Trimikliniotis adds, the fact that it is migrant delivery drivers that are targeted means it is precisely racism. “We don’t see general attacks on Cypriot drivers or broader motorbike drivers.”

The underlying factor is that they’re migrant workers.

Although society at large may appreciate the services carried out by delivery drivers, the fact that they are so low-paid and migrants, makes them seem unimportant people in society, according to Trimikliniotis.

Both experts reflect on the serial killer Nikos Metaxas, who murdered five women and two children – all foreign nationals. Although his killing spree began in 2016, it continued for another two years as reports of the missing women went ignored. It was only in 2019 when one of the bodies was found that police uncovered the case – though the evidence was there all along.

Christophorou and Trimikliniotis make the point that this is the same police force called to clamp down on the racist violence.

“Attacks are not costly to anyone because there is no accountability. Migrant workers are not taken seriously – unlike the rich migrants to whom they sell properties and passports,” the latter adds.

Christophorou observes the broader stance against foreign nationals which falls into two categories: Westerners, associated with status and money; and others who are deemed poor and weak.

He points to the first time migration was referred to as the ‘third invasion’ of Cyprus was around the year 2000 by the interior minister at the time. During the time of Nicos Nouris as interior minister under the previous government, the rhetoric was “flagrant racism”, Christophorou says.

Now, it is different. The analyst explains that at the moment, the focus lies on how many rejected asylum seekers were deported. “It’s effectively saying ‘we kicked out this many’.”

This creates the picture that every foreigner is a danger that should be removed, he says.

Trimikliniotis takes a step back to argue it is important to also focus on who the perpetrators are. For the most part, they are youths. Teenagers or people in their early 20s, and most of the crime is unfolding in Limassol. In other occasions, there are gangs involved.

He outlines there are multiple things happening at the same time. Limassol, a city of extreme wealth and extreme poverty is a city of contradictions. “Adolescents in deprived neighbourhoods are left without prospects or hope. People are stuck in the suburbs and there’s people controlling the nightlife.”

Merge together migrants who have become easy targets, a lack of accountability for perpetrators, and youths with nothing to look forward to in a city where crime has become a problem, then it is not simply racism.

Trimikliniotis does not want to dismiss the racial aspect of it – but seeks to highlight that there is more than meets the eye. For the perpetrators who are young, “they get kudos out of this. It’s what their peers think that’s important to them, not what society thinks.”

But when the society they live in is so fragmented and rife with conflicts, exploitation and uncertainty, not all attacks can be boiled down to fascist elements – though the far-right has certainly taken advantage of the situation, he adds.

The contradictions that evolved in Limassol developed very quickly, and criminal gangs have staked their claim in parts of the coastal city, meaning that no-go areas have been established, Trimikliniotis said. Delivery drivers however are called to work in every nook and cranny of the city.

Though attacks did not used to happen in the heart of Limassol three years ago according to Rajesh, they now unfold in the city centre.

According to Trimikliniotis however, “it is different vibes” altogether at night and this is when crime comes to light.

The ‘dispensable’ status migrants have in society means they can also be used to send a message in the underworld. While in the news one may read something as an attack, beating up a delivery driver “may send a message that ‘no one goes here without their permission.’” An average citizen may not get it, but the underworld will, he explains.

Taking all this into account, Trimikliniotis is not convinced by the government pledge. Christophorou recognises that while Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou has said the economy would collapse without migrants, for the most part, the promises appear to fall on unconvinced ears.

“The government showed no interest solving a problem brewing for so long,” Trimikliniotis says. He describes it as a PR stint, observing that not even the unions were invited.

He fears the problem will get much worse – unless serious action is taken involving all stakeholders to reverse the way cities are polarised and fragmented, not just repression.

Similarly, Christophorou says if the government was truly willing to tackle this as a crime and social issue, it would have carried out studies by experts.

Without that, “it’s just meetings and more meetings and statements to the press.”