Immigration sends Ethiopian back to warzone because she didn’t have ticket
AN ETHIOPIAN woman was deported back to Lebanon upon her arrival at Larnaca port after immigration authorities found she lacked an onwards airline ticket out of Cyprus.
The incident was reported to the Cyprus Mail by immigrant support group, KISA, yesterday.
“This was a clear violation of her human rights,” KISA president Doros Polycarpou said.
“By law the woman should have been told she had the right to ask for political asylum when she arrived in Cyprus on the grounds of what she had fled from in Lebanon.”
Polycarpou said the organisation had been tipped off about the incident by an insider.
“Three Ethiopian women arrived in Cyprus from Lebanon. Two of them were allowed in because they had tickets to travel home. The third woman was not allowed entry into the country because she had no ticket. Instead she was sent back to Lebanon.”
The human rights activist said the woman may not have known to ask for political asylum and that it was apparent the government was doing everything to avoid offering third country nationals protection.
“The government is willing to help in the evacuation process and to offer countries the use of the Cyprus Republic’s services as long as Cyprus remains a transit hub. It doesn’t want to offer temporary protection to anyone and is doing everything it can to avoid it.”
Polycarpou said two other Lebanese families had also been denied entry into Cyprus.
“One escaped to Cairo and the other to Damascus. But when the asked to come to Cyprus both were refused entry visas.”
He said in those cases although the government was “legally” allowed to say no it should on humanitarian grounds have made an allowance.
“However, regarding the Ethiopian woman, it was clear violation of her human rights not to inform her she could ask permission to stay. It was inhuman to deport her because she didn’t have a ticket home. They could have contacted the International Organisation for Migration to help. They didn’t want to give her protection and – afraid she would ask for help – they sent her back.”
He added: “In this case we had access to the information [about the deportation]. I don’t know how often it must happen and we don’t hear anything about it.”
Polycarpou said another problem was the lack of infrastructure where Lebanese refugees could turn to ask for help.
He said he knew of a case of a Lebanese man who’d left his home town in southern Lebanon two weeks before the bombing started.
“He could feel the tension and wanted to get out before anything happened. Now he can’t go home because his home has been destroyed and there’s nothing left for him to go back to,” Polycarpou said.
“He didn’t know where to turn to when he got here and when his money ran out ended up sleeping in the park for several days until another Arab man took him in and suggested he appeal to the social welfare services.
“We’ve been waiting for two days now for them to respond to his welfare application. We’re hoping he’ll get anything. Even just a little money so that he can afford to buy something to eat.”
No one at the Department Immigration was available for comment yesterday.
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