By Martin Hellicar and Elias Hazou
THE GOVERNMENT has requested the help of UNHCR officials to establish which of the 109 Arabs and Africans rescued from a trawler found drifting off Cyprus last week are genuine asylum-seekers.
“It is a difficult and time-consuming process finding out the true identity and circumstances of those claiming to be in danger,” senior immigration department officer Costas Hadjipavlou said yesterday.
The UNHCR closed its Cyprus office more than a year ago, but the government has now asked for UNHCR experts to be sent to the Island to help sort through the dozens of asylum claims from boat people alleging they face persecution in their home countries, Hadjipavlou said.
Since their rescue on June 30, the 109 passengers have been staying – at government expense and under tight police security – at the £25-a-night Pefkos hotel in Limassol.
“The obvious (unfounded) cases will be swiftly dealt with,” Hadjipavlou said. “Those who are proven not to be in danger will not be granted political asylum,” he said.
Passengers failing to secure asylum would face deportation, but police have said returning the passengers to their home countries would be no simple matter as most do not possess travel documents.
The police were yesterday washing their hands of the matter.
“It is now in the hands of the state,” a police spokesman said.
He suggested the boat people were in no hurry to leave the Island: “To be honest, they are quite happy down there (in Limassol).”
The boat people – from Iraq, Syria, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Rwanda and Congo – have been complaining of the restrictive regime imposed by police at their hotel.
The government has promised to meet its obligations under international human rights treaties and to provide all possible assistance to the rescued passengers.
The passengers, including eight children, were half-starved and suffering from severe dehydration when a Ukrainian cargo vessel found them aboard the Syrian-flagged Rida Allah. Crammed on the deck of the tiny fishing boat, they had been drifting for 10 days after the vessel developed engine trouble two days after leaving the Lebanese port of Tripoli on June 18.
Police said two passengers had died of thirst on the fishing boat and been thrown overboard by the time the vessel was found and towed to Limassol.
The Syrian captain of the ship, 31-year-old Mohammed Mustafa, has been charged with causing death by negligence and carrying passengers on an unsuitable vessel. Passengers claim they paid Mustafa thousands of dollars each for passage to Greece and Italy.
