CASES FOR asylum seekers in Cyprus have rocketed as November records show an increase of 866 asylum seekers applying for refugee status, an official at the investigation office of refugees revealed yesterday.
Just nine cases were reported in April, which increased to 105 cases in May and has been increasing since.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an official at the investigation office for refugees in Nicosia explained the law used to allow the police to arrest any alien or foreigner committing any crime. The accused would then be kept in jail and a lawyer or their friends would then help them apply for refugee status to be allowed to stay in Cyprus and prevent them from being deported and an investigation would ensue. But now the law states that once an illegal immigrant applies for refugee status, the police cannot arrest them. A full investigation must take place and the result could mean deportation.
The official said the majority of asylum seekers arrive from Pakistan by paying an agent between $2000-$3000 who will then take them through Turkey and then to the occupied areas, where they cross the green line to Cyprus.
An asylum seeker, who could not be named, told the Cyprus Mail why he chose to come to Cyprus. “I belong to a religious group called the ‘Ahmadiyas’. Under the Pakistani Penal code Section 298-A, the law states that I have committed blasphemy and will be sentenced to death if found.” He added, “I paid $6500 to an agent in Pakistan who told me he would take me to Germany where they give asylum to Muslims. I travelled on a cargo boat eating boiled rice and arrived here. I thought I was in Germany.”
According to the officer at the investigations office, most asylum seekers “claim that they can’t go home because they will be killed.
“I want you to really understand that most of them are lying. They all give us a false name, because their agent told them to do that because it will take us longer to investigate them and we can’t touch them until then.”
The Cyprus government may change this system to correspond with EU laws on illegal immigrants. The EU states that any immigrant can be deported or arrested after their first interview with the immigration office.
Until then, asylum seekers are still seeking refuge in Cyprus as they share the belief that the Cyprus system is easy to get around, which brings them one step closer with Europe.
Most immigrants enter Cyprus with the aid of the Cyprus education system. Over 11,000 students currently studying in Cyprus are foreign and have gained visas to stay on the island through their college course.
The officer at the investigations office recorded that approximately 90 per cent of asylum seekers were in fact students.
Dr Gregory Makrides director of admissions of Intercollege, agreed “there has been cases where they have paid to join a college course with false identification, which is checked by the immigration office. If they are cleared they get a pink slip allowing them to stay in Cyprus for one year, which they can renew. But they do not attend the college and instead use the opportunity to work in Cyprus.” He added, “We don’t accept applications from Bangladesh because there have been a lot of problems there. Now we are finding that there have been problems with the Pakistani pupils.”
Law reforms which will make it harder for illegal immigrants to enter the island are expected before the island’s accession to the EU in May.
