Documentary exposes sexual harassment and exploitation in Ayia Napa, Cyprus

A British undercover journalist has exposed widespread sexual harassment, illegal working conditions and squalid accommodation facing young workers in Ayia Napa, southern Cyprus.

Investigative journalist Tir Dhondy posed as a 24-year-old hairdresser to infiltrate the working holiday industry in Cyprus, documenting how employers and rep firms exploit young workers, the Irish Sun reported. Her investigation, streaming on Channel 4 from Tuesday, 13 January, captured club owners boasting of sexual assault and workers trapped in cockroach-infested accommodation.

She recounts how, within hours of arriving in Ayia Napa, a strip bar owner confronted Dhondy with explicit sexual harassment. “If I want to see your tts, I’ll ask,” he told her, according to documentary footage. The bar manager joined in: “I think what he’s trying to say is, ‘Can I see your tts?'”

The exchanges escalated to discuss trading sexual favours for paid work. “If they give you a b***job, they move off trial, don’t they?” the manager asked the club owner, according to footage shown to the Irish Sun.

The same club owner boasted he had pulled down more than 100 girls’ tops to look at their breasts “as a joke”.

Dhondy found the power dynamics particularly disturbing. “There was also a guy that ran a water park, and he would sleep with girls for them to get jobs – there were rumours of that kind of thing all the time,” she said. “A lot of the girls that come to do a season are 16 or 17, still at school, they’re super, super young.”

Her investigation focused on Workers Family, one of several companies offering package deals across European party destinations. The company’s end-of-summer package promises four weeks’ work and accommodation for £399, compared with £799 during peak season.

Workers described dangerous accommodation with broken security, mould and infestations. British worker Isobel woke one night to find a drunk stranger looming over her bed. “I woke up in the middle of the night and there was this random guy stood there looking down at me,” she said. “Anything could have happened. Looking back it makes me feel sick.”

Isobel woke up to find a drunk stranger standing over her bed. Credit: Channel 4

Dhondy was assigned a ground-floor room behind bins with a smashed window, four beds crammed together and cigarette burns in the sheets. Another worker, Carmen, said her apartment had no running water “90 per cent of the time” and contained filthy mattresses, no air conditioning, broken toilet seats and cockroach infestations.

The squalid conditions extend beyond Workers Family. Danish tourist Emilie Polusen, 25, encountered cockroach infestations and mould after paying £600 for accommodation through a different company in August 2021, The Sun reported.

“We arrived and their were cockroaches all over the balcony and some were inside as well,” Polusen said. “There were dirty sheets and loads of mould in the bathroom, which really smelt. It was disgusting, even the rep looking after us didn’t want to touch the bedding.”

She and her friend Emma were moved but found the new accommodation equally inadequate. “They put our beds in a kitchen and it didn’t even have air conditioning. It wasn’t what was promised,” Polusen said.

When workers in Dhondy’s investigation complained, reps threatened expulsion. “They said we’re on holiday and should just be grateful and enjoy it and that we’ll be kicked out of Workers Family if we complain anymore,” Carmen said. “We were scared of the reps. They were very aggressive and would threaten anyone who had a genuine question or concern.”

Hidden costs compounded the exploitation. After paying their initial package fee, workers faced an additional €150 on check-in – including a €50 damage deposit, €40 for bills, €10 for bedsheets and a €50 resort fee. Many never received their deposits back.

These extra charges generate €90,000 for the company each summer, a leading rep told Dhondy. “I take all the heat but not the money, if I took a cut I’d be rich,” he said.

Workers struggled to survive on meagre wages. Dhondy earned 30 euros per day as a PR girl for Titanic nightclub, equivalent to £5 per hour. “I calculated you’re making £800 a month and you’ve already paid £400 for Workers Family accommodation so essentially you’ve only got £400 to live on for the month which doesn’t feel doable,” she said.

Isobel, hired to sell bar tickets, said employers demanded she work seven days a week from 11am until between 5am and 8am. “They didn’t pay me, they still owe me money – they still owe me two, three hundred euros,” she said.

Polusen and Emma also struggled with broken promises of employment support. “We weren’t given what we were promised,” Polusen told The Sun. “A lot of people weren’t and moved out of where they put them originally. We were hoping to meet new people working out there but that never happened. We ended up going home because couldn’t get a job, and there was no support.”

Dhondy’s manager Nick admitted they were both working illegally without permits and would be paid in cash. Post-Brexit rules require British nationals to obtain visas or work permits to work in EU countries including Cyprus.

“This was not made clear to me when I signed up, even when I asked if there was anything I needed to be organising,” Dhondy said. “Neither I nor any of the people I spoke to during this investigation were told they needed a working visa.”

Carmen said workers realised too late they were operating illegally. “By the time we realised we were working illegally we didn’t have the money to book a flight home,” she said. “We’d already spent the money on the package and thought if we don’t do these illegal shifts we can’t eat.”

At a pool party, a rep offered Dhondy work as a “balloon girl” selling nitrous oxide, despite the drug being banned in Ayia Napa since 2022.

The Home Office issued warnings last year that young adults working as PRs in destinations including Ibiza and Majorca face exploitation as modern slaves, the Irish Sun reported. Border Force launched month-long Operation Karetu, warning travellers at airports.

Andrew Wallis, chief executive of anti-slavery charity UNSEEN, said young British workers were being dragged into exploitation and criminal activity. “When they arrive, they discover the opportunity isn’t as advertised,” he told the Irish Sun. “They could be arrested for illegal working. Then that means the potential for a criminal record. And that is then ruinous for the rest of that individual’s life.”

Wallis said accommodation tied to work left workers feeling trapped. “The accommodation is always substandard and more often than not the accommodation costs will wipe out what potentially they could earn. Very quickly they feel that they’re trapped. Then they have more of a hold on you, you have put yourself in the clutches of people who want to exploit you.”

Source: In-Cyprus