The Ayia Napa Municipality has issued a condemnation of the “illegal and unacceptable” practices exposed by a Channel 4 undercover investigation, with Mayor Christos Zannettou declaring a policy of zero tolerance towards harassment and labour exploitation.
The official response comes in the wake of a Channel 4 documentary, Untold: Undercover Working Holidays, which depicted a predatory environment where young British workers were subjected to sexual abuse, squalid housing, and coercive illegal labour within the resort.
Zannettou described the findings as “isolated incidents” that do not reflect the overall image of the tourist destination, which he insisted operates with full respect for human rights and the dignity of the hundreds of thousands of visitors and employees it hosts annually.
The municipality has moved to distance the town’s reputation from the footage, which captured nightclub managers demanding sexual favours from undercover reporter Tir Dhondy in exchange for employment.
In one instance, a manager was filmed proposing a “blowjob rule” to bypass unpaid trial shifts, while another employer boasted of physically exposing more than one hundred female workers. In response to these revelations, the municipal authority said it dispatched formal correspondence to “all relevant ministries” and the Deputy Ministry of Tourism. Mayor Zannettou confirmed he is in contact with the Minister of Justice and Public Order, as well as the Chief of Police, to coordinate an investigation and ensure that those responsible are held accountable.
This local government intervention follows pressure from organisations. The POGO Women’s Movement has already labelled the situation a regime of “modern slavery with a clear gender dimension,” having written to the Chief of Police to demand an immediate probe into the “systemic failures” that allowed such abuse to occur.
Furthermore, the trade union PEO has warned that the documentary’s evidence points toward “human trafficking mechanisms” and has called on the Ministry of Labour to explain the apparent lack of oversight regarding employment permits for foreign nationals. The union argues that the government must finally heed their long-standing warnings about the vulnerabilities of seasonal workers and overhaul the criteria for granting work approvals.
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