Cyprus updates civil protection shelter registry and strategy

Cyprus Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou announced an update to the SafeCY mobile application following recent inspections of 2,480 registered shelters. Inspections revealed that 194 sites no longer exist or are unsuitable, while 288 have been reclassified as private property for owners or tenants only, leading to their removal from the public list. The government is working to clean and declutter the remaining functional shelters. Since 1999, official policy relied on private basements, but this approach proved insufficient and was discontinued in 2013 in favor of public spaces like hotels and parking facilities. The administration currently aims to increase population shelter coverage from the existing 45 percent through a new strategy involving collaboration with churches and private businesses. Proposed legislative changes include renaming the Ministry of Interior to the Ministry of Interior and Civil Protection and appointing Nikos Logginos as the National Coordinator of Civil Protection. Additionally, the government is considering a policy requiring new apartment buildings to include equipped underground shelters, offering developers a 5 percent building coefficient bonus as an incentive.