The Ministry of Interior has acknowledged gaps and weaknesses in Cyprus’s civil defence shelter programme, saying improvement efforts have been under way for the past three years and that the SafeCY app — criticised in a recent Audit Office report — has already been significantly corrected.
Responding to the Audit Office’s findings, the Ministry said it had recognised the problems created by the previous practice of designating shelters in the basements of private residences, a policy in place since 1999, and that since 2023 a new approach had been adopted under Interior Ministry direction. The focus has shifted to large-capacity public spaces — underground public car parks, supermarket and hotel basements, churches and similar venues. While the total number of designated shelters is smaller under this approach, population coverage is expected to increase. Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou previously confirmed that population coverage had already risen from 30% to around 45% under the new methodology, with more spaces being gradually added.
The shift in approach follows a Cabinet review that found 194 shelters listed in the official registry were either unsuitable or no longer existed and were declassified, while a further 288 were reclassified as private spaces. The Ministry has been working with business associations, hoteliers, supermarkets and the Church to secure large underground spaces requiring minimal preparation.
On the SafeCY app, the Ministry acknowledged it required improvement — something the recent crisis made plain. It said the app had already been significantly corrected in cooperation with the Deputy Ministry of Innovation and the KOIOS Centre. The Ministry had previously announced that the app would be upgraded to send targeted notifications to users within a specific radius of security incidents.
The Ministry said the Audit Office’s findings confirmed its own assessments and the need to reorganise and modernise the shelter programme — a process it said began in 2023. The goal, it said, is to strengthen the level of response capacity as soon as possible.
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