€261 is the allowance an asylum seeker receives in Cyprus. For some, it may be
sufficient, for others not. The observation is that asylum seekers still manage to manage their benefits, but in reality, they are trying to survive.
60% of the amount, around €160, is spent on food. It is up to the asylum seeker to
make do with € 5 per day. This means always cooking and avoiding indulging yourself with a restaurant dish. Likewise, he has to know where to get supplies at a lower cost. Under these conditions, certainly, many do not manage to eat balanced meals, that is to say, to have a healthy diet.
The remaining €101, which represents around 40%, is used to pay rent, electricity,
water, communication, and transport. All these charges can be managed by this small budget because the welfare pays part of the rent. Electricity and water depend on consumption. To communicate the Wi-Fi subscription is the most affordable and public transport is cheaper. But there are times when, despite good management, asylum seekers experience difficult ends of the month.
It is almost impossible to save money with your allowance. This prevents facing difficult situations such as moving, where you have to pay a deposit for the rent and another for the electricity (€350). Sometimes the allowances arrive late in the month. In certain serious cases, it happens that an asylum seeker does not receive his allowance and he has to go and claim it from welfare.
Ultimately, without the help and assistance of NGOs (like Caritas and MiHub), it is
difficult for asylum seekers to meet their needs just with allowances. To remedy these shortcomings, it is not necessarily a question of increasing allowances, but also of thinking about making them useful to society so that they no longer live on charity.