(AP) Cyprus’ interior minister said Tuesday that he asked police to launch a criminal investigation into allegations that girls staying at a migrants’ reception center were sexually harassed by other residents.
Interior Minister Nicos Nouris told state broadcaster CyBC that he takes “very seriously” the allegations made by an official from the Cyprus office of the U.N.’s High Commission for Refugees at a parliamentary committee meeting on Monday.
But Nouris criticized the official for not immediately disclosing the allegations to Cypriot authorities and instead waiting four days to report them in parliament.
The children’s rights commissioner of Cyprus, Despo Michaelidou-Livaniou, told the Associated Press that a number of girls were allegedly groped as they waited in line for a meal at the Pournara migrant reception center.
