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Shocking footage has revealed the squalid conditions inside a once thriving three-star resort that migrants were living in - before they were evicted following protests from locals.
St Nicholas Elegant Residence near Paphos was once a popular hub for tourist but has since become home to more than 600 asylum seekers.
Videos from inside the now derelict site, renamed the Ayios Nikolaos apartment complex, show rubbish strewn across patches of grass and dried-out swimming pools. The once sunny yellow walls are now covered in graffiti,.
Piles of debris filled with plastic bags, boxes and food are shown as unnamed people, believed to be migrants living on the complex, speak of the awful conditions they lived in - claiming there was no water and no electricity sources.
Since the video was filmed by the Cyprus Mail, more than 150 migrants have been removed from property, with officials and police forces starting the eviction at 3am on Monday, according to state broadcaster CyBC.
The Ayios Nikolaos apartment complex near Paphos was once a three-star resort but has since been used to house 600 migrants. Pictured: This aerial view shows an empty swimming pool filled with waste sits at the apartment complex
Video footage published by the Cyprus Mail showed unnamed asylum seekers talking about the conditions
A refugee from Syria sits at a room in the the Ayios Nikolaos apartment complex, in Chloraka
The apartment complex was first ordered to be shut down and evicted in November 2020, but it never took place
On Monday, at around 3am, authorities and police forces removed around 150 people, according to the state broadcaster CyBC
An aerial picture of the Ayios Nikolaos apartment complex, in Chloraka
Police are carrying out an eviction order that was first put in place in November 2020, ordering it to be closed on health and safety grounds. But the decree had not been implemented, the Sun reported.
Ever since the asylum seekers arrived in the area, there has been friction between them and locals living in Chlorakas, who have called for the flats to be cleared.
Tensions were sparked further this week, however, following protests by residents and allegations of electricity theft.
It resurfaced after the state electricity utility cut power to the complex subsequently placing the local substation under guard.
Paphos police spokesman Michalis Nicolaou said: 'Personnel are in the area and have blocked off the building complex and begun to register all the foreigners who are settled in the specific complex in Chloraka.'
He said the migrants would then be taken to an asylum seeker centre to determine whether or not they have the right to stay on the island in the Mediterranean.
Asylum seekers sit at the Ayios Nikolaos apartment complex, in Chloraka
An empty swimming pool filled with waste sits at the Ayios Nikolaos apartment complex, in Chloraka
Cypriot authorities have started removing around 600 asylum seekers from the condemned apartment complex
A picture shows a room used by Asylum seekers at the Ayios Nikolaos apartment complex
Asylum seekers walk amidst waste at the Ayios Nikolaos apartment complex
Children of a refugee family stand at the terrace of a flat in the Ayios Nikolaos apartment complex
Concrete barriers block the entrance to the Ayios Nikolaos apartment complex
Last week 100 migrants living on the complex protested to be rehoused elsewhere, before anti-riot police arrived and used tear gas on the protesters.
Cyprus argues it is a frontline country on the Mediterranean migrant route, with asylum seekers accounting for five per cent of the 915,000 people living in the government-held areas of the island.
