Asylum seekers’ deaths highlight a greater problem
THE DEATHS of 31 illegal immigrants and one crew member, who perished when their boat sank off the coast of Karpasia early on Monday morning, has highlighted the scale of an illegal immigrant problem that gives Cyprus the highest per capita asylum seeker ratio in Europe.
The doomed fishing vessel was on its way to north Cyprus from southern Turkey with its cargo of 37 would-be illegal immigrants when it sank 10 miles off the coast of Yialoussa. So far, the bodies of six Syrian nationals have been recovered, along with that of Turkish Cypriot crew member Bulent Ali Esim. A further 26 of the immigrants were presumed dead yesterday as the north’s authorities announced the end of air-sea rescue efforts.
On Wednesday, police in the north arrested the boat’s owner, Syrian-born Muhammet Tavil and his two sons, Sait and Firaz. It is believed Firaz Tavil was preparing to leave Cyprus at the time of his arrest in Kyrenia. Reports yesterday suggested the Tavil family’s arrest would lead to more detentions that include a number of Karpass fishermen.
According to press reports, the Tavil family and Esim had been charged with human trafficking earlier this year, but that fines imposed had been so negligible that they provided little or no incentive for them to stop.
It is believed each of the immigrants paid between two and three thousand dollars each to be smuggled from Turkey into Turkish-controlled north Cyprus and then on to the government-controlled south.
Once in the government-controlled areas, most illegal immigrants present themselves at police stations and ask for political asylum. The government is obliged to process all applications.
Makis Polydorou of the Asylum Service in Nicosia told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that immigration from the north had become huge big problem in recent years.
Polydorou bemoaned the fact there was little the government could do to stem the flow of around 450 asylum applications per month.
“Since we cannot control the situation in the occupied area, huge numbers are entering Cyprus. Most of our illegal immigrants come in through the north,” Polydorou said.
“Normally they enter the free areas and then present themselves at police stations,” he added.
Earlier this year Chief of Police Tassos Panayiotou told a conference of European police chiefs gathered in Nicosia that 2004 had seen a 499 per cent increase in asylum seekers, and claimed that most of those applying had entered the island through the north. In 2003 around 400 foreigners applied for asylum, he said, compared to 9284 in 2004.
The current surge, he told the conference, meant Cyprus had the highest ratio asylum seekers per capita. He said the majority of illegal immigrants seeking asylum found their way into the government-controlled areas by simply crossing the Green Line at unguarded points.
The majority, he added, were Muslims who had entered Turkey on legal visas. They then either used these visas to fly or sail to the north, or were smuggled onto the island in fishing boats.
An EU Commission report on problems relating to the Green Line earlier this year highlighted the growing problem of illegal immigration from the north by saying, “The [UN-controlled] line cannot be regarded over the whole length as being under effective surveillance. In some areas it is possible to cross the line without any controls”.
In April the smashing of a Turkish Cypriot human smuggling ring temporarily slowed down the number of illegal immigrants, overwhelmingly from citizens of Syria, Iraq and Pakistan who have arrived via the north, pouring into the Republic.
The bust, that included the arrest of a number of Turkish Cypriot policemen, led to allegations of the involvement of high ranking police officers in Turkey.
One of the lawyers defending those accused of involvement told the Mail, “Staff at [the north Cyprus] immigration receive faxes from high-ranking police officers who give orders to let certain people through”.
He added that although the main movers in the ring were based in Turkey, it was Turkish Cypriots who arranged for the immigrants to be housed in hostels in the north before being taken across open land into the government-controlled areas.
