WITH its roaring nightlife and stunning beaches Northern Cyprus might be considered a perfect spot for stag dos.
But amid the neon lights of its clubs lies a dark reality – with teenage girls and young mums allegedly lured to the holiday destination to become waitresses, then forced to become sex slaves.
This month, married mum Anastasia Melega, 25, was found dead at a nightclub in Alayköy, near the Cypriot capital, Nicosia, after reportedly being forced into sex slavery.
Anastasia, whose son recently turned four, was found dead in a room at Prenses (or “Princess”;) nightclub earlier this month, according to local reports.
The venue, where the mum both lived and worked as a hostess, boasts on its website of VIP “privileges”; and nights filled with “luxury”;.
Its homepage features photos of lingerie-clad young women.
She is feared to be among many women and girls being enticed to Northern Cyprus – a self-declared state, recognised only by Turkey, with false promises of education and work.
Upon arrival, they are reported to have their passports confiscated before being “marketed like animals”; and forced to engage in prostitution in nightclubs, at villas and on yachts.
To ensure they comply, the victims, some underage, are allegedly plied with drugs and beaten.
In one case described to Flying Eze, a young woman suffered a ruptured eardrum when she resisted her abusers.
Others are forced to sleep with ten men a night and face more violence at the hands of customers.
Nelson Neocleus from Cyprus STOP Trafficking (CST), told Flying Eze: “They are physically and or sexually exploited, their passports are confiscated, they are asked to pay back large sums of money.
“In many cases, [the criminals] lied to them that they could work legally while studying and that they could easily make enough money to pay for their education.”
“So, they are pressured into illegal work, which in some cases means providing sexual services.”;
Nelson added that the women and girls, and men trafficked into work like slaves in construction or agriculture, are “deceived by criminal networks which conspire between their own town or country and the northern part of Cyprus”;.
Many, he said, “are promised studies in colleges and universities”;, while others are falsely guaranteed “normal”; work.
The UK is the top source of tourism for Cyprus, with a whopping 1.3million Brits visiting the holiday island each year.
Of these, tens of thousands travel to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is reported to have seen an explosion in tourism in 2024.
The Republic, whose crossing point in Nicosia is only a 90-minute drive from party hotspot Ayia Napa, offers tourists a mixture of Mediterranean and Turkish cultures.
During the day, Brits can experience walking or Segway tours, jeep safaris and “thrill-seeking”; activities like tandem paragliding and scuba diving.
At night, they have a choice of dozens of nightclubs offering “unforgettable moments”; to international tourists.
But politicians and organisations have accused nightclubs in the Republic of doubling as brothels, with trafficked women “bound”; to the establishments, where they may have been promised hostess or waitress jobs.
“Many people employed at these venues have had their human rights violated and have been raped,”; said DoÄŸuÅŸ Derya, a Northern Cypriot Republican Turkish Party (CTP) MP.
The sex slaves are subjected to regular medical check-ups, including HIV tests, and are expected to work every night unless they are on their period.
Brutal trafficking
Anti-trafficking experts told Flying Eze that sex slavery in Northern Cyprus is increasing.
“It has increased very much because in the beginning there were not many nightclubs,”; said activist Deniz Altiok, of the Human Rights Platform. “Now, we have a lot of them.”;
Altiok added that sex slavery has been a problem since 2000, when Cyprus passed “The Nightclubs and Similar Places of Entertainment Law,” allowing the clubs to open.
She added that the exploitation of women and girls has spread from nightclubs to “private apartment brothels”;, where foreign sex slaves are forced into prostitution after being “misled”; by illicit agencies.
“They thought they were going to work at a bar, but they were not,”; Deniz told us. “They were taken directly from the airport – they didn’t even see anything else – and they were taken to the apartment.”;
Damla Kodan, project coordinator at the Refugee Rights Association, said the agencies behind the trafficking, which, though illegal allegedly operate with the help of the Republic’s “corrupt” government, often advertise a “really good education and degree”;.
“Once [the women and girls] come here, they realise they are not fully registered at the school,”; said Damla. “And then, because maybe the agency paid for their flight tickets, they go under a debt bondage.”;
Debt bondage is seen in “all cases”;, according to the Human Rights Platform.
Damla added that the working conditions for the women and girls are “inhumane”;.
“We hear that they are forced to sleep with ten men in one day, or that they can’t choose their customers... they experience violence from customers sometimes,”; she said.
They get the virus here, but they don’t even have the chance to get treated here
Damla Kodan
Bodyguards from the nightclubs take the women and girls for STI and STD check-ups at local hospitals. If they are found to have the most serious diseases, such as HIV, they are punished.
“They don’t get treated – they are immediately sent back to their country,”; said Damla. “That’s another human rights violation. They get the virus here, but they don’t even have the chance to get treated here.”;
Perverted network
The experts told Flying Eze that many people and businesses are involved in the sex slavery trade in Northern Cyprus – including nail salons, shops, pharmacies and transportation workers.
They all have a “secret agreement”; that enables the victimisation of the women and girls, who are often manipulated to stay at the nightclubs or apartments, by being paid only part of what they are owed.
“If [nightclub bodyguards] are taking a girl to a pharmacy, they are taking her to that specific pharmacy, so they’re not going to talk about it,”; said Deniz. “So, both sides are benefiting.”;
Speaking to the Republic’s General Assembly on March 4, the day after Anastasia’s death, DoÄŸuÅŸ Derya claimed that underage girls are among those being “brought and made to be sex slaves”; at the nightclubs, which operate outside of international law.
The passports of the women and girls, some registered as students, are allegedly confiscated by the state, making it impossible for them to flee the island.
They are then advertised “like animals”; or “property”; on websites containing online catalogues of nightclubs, said Derya, according to the Turkish daily newspaper, Evrensel.
The politician described how victims are also working as sex slaves in apartments or on yachts, with nightclubs having a limit on the number of hostesses working there.
The women and girls are given drugs to help them to “tolerate”; their horrific situations, she alleged, with some undergoing abortions because their clients refused to use protection.
While Derya has called for such nightclubs to close down, human rights groups have demanded an investigation into the circumstances of Anastasia’s death, which has been ruled a suicide by local police.
The groups are also calling for a probe into the freedom of movement, conditions and treatment of women working at nightclubs in Northern Cyprus.
“Cyprus STOP Trafficking is very concerned about such exploitation occurring in the area of Cyprus that is occupied by Turkey since 1974,”; Mr Neocleus told Flying Eze.
“We have signed a statement with other NGOs, many from the Turkish-Cypriot society, who strongly disagree with the tolerance by the authorities – if not, encouragement – of such nightclubs operating there.”;
Human lives are being trampled on the ground
Cyprus local
The statement was also signed by the Refugee Rights Association (RRA), Caritas Cyprus, Human Rights Platform, Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies, Prologue Consulting, KAYAD, and Queer Cyprus Association.
Tragic death
Anastasia's death has shone a spotlight on the shocking plight of women trafficked to Cyprus for sex work.
She had moved to Northern Cyprus from Moldova – a poverty-stricken country where many of the sex slaves are thought to be from, along with Ukraine, Russia and parts of Africa and Asia.
The victims are allegedly trafficked in through Turkey, the only country which formally recognises the Northern Cyprus state, created after a civil war in 1974.
It is not known whether Anastasia had been joined in Northern Cyprus by her husband and her son, whom she’d previously described on social media as her “whole life”;.
Derya confirmed Anastasia was likely a victim of human trafficking. “A sex slave was found dead in a nightclub,”; she told the General Assembly, according to Cyprus Mail.
Anastasia was rumoured to have amassed debts in recent years, with comments on her social media page referring to money she had allegedly “never”; paid back. It is conceivable that she accepted work in Northern Cyprus to earn enough money to repay the debts.
The mum is not the first nightclub worker to have died in Northern Cyprus. It is claimed that such deaths are not investigated thoroughly by the authorities.
Following the latest tragedy, one local wrote on social media: “Human lives are being trampled on the ground.”;
Shockingly, prostitution, which is illegal in Northern Cyprus, has been a so-called “open secret”; in the Republic for decades. The Globe Post Turkey reports that nightclubs “provide a significant source of tax revenue”; for the Turkish Cypriot administration.
Inspections are supposedly conducted on such venues by police – but Derya dismissed these and claimed that sex slavery has been carried out by the state for a quarter of a century.
One local report, dating back to 2006, described how an 18-year old trafficked virgin was being sold for an amount worth more than £12,000 in today’s money. Fortunately, the girl successfully fled.
But do many sex slaves manage to escape?
Not easily: some women who have bravely alerted Northern Cyprus’s police force to their suffering have found themselves charged with prostitution.
We don’t have the funding to build a shelter, or look after these women
Deniz Altiok
They have reportedly had to withdraw their allegations to avoid prosecution.
While the Human Rights Platform has a hotline that it advertises throughout Northern Cyprus, the platform cannot obtain funding due to the fact that the state is unrecognised.
“We don’t have the funding to build a shelter or look after these women,”; said Deniz Altiok, who has called for the nightclubs to be shut down.
Minister of Public Works and Transportation, Erhan Arikli, said one girl who was forced into prostitution and “beaten”; at a nightclub in Alayköy was rescued after somehow getting a message to her family in Central Asia.
However, Arikli said, the girl chose to return to her family “immediately”; instead of staying in Northern Cyprus to help prosecute her attackers.
Nelson Neocleus told Flying Eze a similar story.
“During the last few years, CST worked together with the Human Rights Platform and managed to free a Nigerian woman who had escaped from a nightclub and was hiding in the northern town of Kyrenia,”; he said.
“She had contacted us through a brother or sister in Nigeria. She chose to return to her country rather than stay in Cyprus to serve as a prosecution witness.
“The northern ‘police authorities’ possibly preferred to close the case in that way and they covered her travel expenses.”;
It was recently reported that the Republic’s Chief Administrative Auditor has launched an official investigation into nightclubs following Anastasia’s death.
But tragically, it comes too late for the young mum – and for many women and girls before her.
