Can compulsory holiday insurance be enforced here?

FEARS that foreigners will be milked as cash cows are once more revived at the prospect of a compulsory insurance policy scheme for tourists to identify taxevading property owners renting under the radar.

Yes, many visitors do seek state health care in a crisis, rather than being forced to pay huge amounts to private sector emergency providers — but as non-residents they are still billed for it.

Most visitors also rent cars and are not aware, unless they are among the unfortunate few who suffer an accident, that insurance payouts in North Cyprus do not compare with UK rates for disability or death.

But quite how any compulsory insurance will be enforced remains to be seen, as many “tourists” are family members visiting expat family, and in any case many already have cover.

Equally, social media is awash with every Tom, Dick and Hasan offering short-term luxury villa and apartment rentals, and many so-called tourists are actually in North Cyprus looking for a job.

However, it does seem to be the lazy way of identifying the culprits by targeting the geese that lay the golden eggs here, and many tourists may not like the prospect of being no more than a marker for a profitable sector.

Let’s hope a concerted effort is also made to resolve the many ownership problems which have probably compelled some owners to make as much tax-free money back as they can off a property with no deeds on the horizon.

Minister Fikri Ataoğlu’s remit is not just for tourism. It also includes the environment, so one would hope that some of the proposed income will be spent on sprucing the place up.

Property owners are also fed up with rampant fly-tipping and the notion that they should not only be doing the job of wardens for free, but even coughing up for the cost of a clean-up when they rightly despair after months of petitioning the authorities for action.