SIXTEEN-year-old Irena Voitovichi yesterday went into hiding after immigration police deported her mother during the early hours of the morning.
“I didn’t get to say goodbye to my mum. She called me from the airport and told me to watch out and said to me they’re looking for me,” the schoolgirl told the Cyprus Mail.
Irena, who had contacted the paper on Tuesday with fears that authorities planned to deport her mother, said she was disappointed and upset the police had gone ahead with Svetlana’s deportation, completely disregarding the fact that the Moldavian had been scheduled to appear in court yesterday to lodge an appeal to suspend the deportation order against her.
“She was supposed to go to court at around 10am and instead of waiting they told her at 10pm yesterday [Tuesday] that she had an hour to pack and that from there she was going to the airport to be deported,” Irena said.
One of Svetlana’s three lawyers, Christophoros Larkou, told the Mail his client had pleaded with police not to deport her without her daughter.
He said: “She told them that her daughter, refusing to return to Moldavia, had left their home and gone missing. She asked to be given enough time to find her child because she couldn’t leave her behind alone, but the immigration officers’ response to that was that it wasn’t a matter which concerned them, but one which concerned the social welfare services.”
Aliens and Immigration deputy unit commander Christakis Pavlou said the police were first and foremost concerned about the girl’s welfare.
“She is a young girl, alone in Cyprus and we need to make sure she is safe and that no harm comes to her… She needs to be with her mother and we want to help her get home,” he said.
Irena said she was fully aware that immigration authorities were after her, but believes her welfare is the last thing on their mind.
“They just want to deport me back to Moldavia. Well I’m not going,” she said.
“Cyprus is my home. I think that says it all. I’ve grown up here, I speak the language, I go to school here, my friends are here, my life is here. I am not going to start all over from the beginning again.”
Irena came to Cyprus just before her eleventh birthday after her mother saved up enough money to bring her over from Moldavia. Unable to speak the language and unfamiliar with the local culture, the 16-year-old said she had to struggle to fit in.
“Now they accept me and my life is here. If they [immigration] want me safe then they should let my mum come back because I’m here,” she said.
Svetlana was deported on instructions from the Interior Ministry’s civil registry and migration department after her naturalisation application was turned down in April.
In response, her lawyers filed for long term residency, which under EU law third country nationals are eligible to apply for after living and working in an EU country for five consecutive years. Svetlana has been on the island since 1998 and for the past three years has worked at a gift shop in Larnaca airport’s departure lounge.
Larkou said his client’s arrest and subsequent deportation had been illegal and that her lawyers were appealing both.
“We should have a decision from the Supreme Court in about four or five months,” he said.
If the court ruled in Svetlana’s favour, which Larkou was optimistic it would, then the Moldavian could return to Cyprus.
In the meantime, Irena said she would stay with a friend and her parents until her mother came back. She said she wanted to go back to school next week but would not risk being found.
“I’ll give it a month because that’s how long I can miss before I’m forced to miss the year and have to repeat it next year. I’ll see how things go between now and then,” she said.
The teenager said she had also spoken to her mother, who knew how she felt.
“She told me that she respected my decision and that if I wanted to stay and fight then I could,” Irena said.
Nevertheless, the lawyer pointed out the young girl was a minor and that if anything happened to her during her mother’s absence the state would be held accountable.
“This is a young girl who is ultimately alone here and the migration department inhumanely separated a mother from her daughter. This is unacceptable,” he said.
