Questions over Egyptian workers killed in Cyprus fire

One week after wildfire devastated surrounding countryside – killing four people – residents of a Cypriot village are facing questions over the treatment of farm labourers.

Odou, Cyprus – Approaching sunset brings an end to the working day in the farming community of Odou, in Cyprus’s Troodos mountains. As light fades, the quiet village is enlivened with the hum of a series of pick-up trucks returning from the fields, loaded with fresh produce and the Egyptian farm labourers who picked it. Situated amid abrupt rock faces and terraced farmland, Odou bares the scars of fresh tragedy. The surrounding slopes are entirely blackened, charred by a forest fire – described as the worst in Cyprus’s recorded history – that engulfed the village on July 3. Four Egyptian workers were killed in the flames and their fate, along with their surviving compatriots, has become the subject of accusations over maltreatment.