School girl whose mother was deported can’t go through with idea without revealing herself to authorities
SIXTEEN-year-old Irena Voitovichi was yesterday disappointed to learn that having herself adopted by her best friend’s mother in an effort to stay in Cyprus and attend school this year was not going to be possible.
“I spoke to my lawyer and he told me that if I start the adoption process I’ll have to give an address of where I’m staying. If I do that they’ll come and take me away,” she said.
Irena was speaking to the Cyprus Mail on her third day in hiding from immigration police after her mother was deported during the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Svetlana was deported back to Moldova after her naturalisation application was denied in April. She had been informed in writing to leave the island as soon as possible but wanting to remain here, where she has lived and worked since 1998, she tried to secure long term residency under EU law.
Although she was due to appear in court this week, the Interior Ministry’s civil registry and migration department ordered her deportation before she could.
Her lawyers have since filed an appeal with the Supreme Court claiming Svetlana’s arrest and subsequent deportation had been illegal. They also claim the state behaved inhumanely and should be held accountable for separating a mother from her child, not to mention leaving a minor defenceless without first determining her whereabouts while her mother was still here. They expect a ruling in four to five months.
In the meantime, Irena is refusing to return to Moldova, a country she has not lived in since she was 10, when she first came to Cyprus to join her mother.
The teen said she slipped out of their Larnaca flat before police could arrest and deport her too.
The civil registry and migration department has confirmed an order for the teen’s detention and deportation has been issued. Immigration police have also said they are on the lookout for her.
On Thursday Irena came up with the idea that if her friend’s mother adopted her she would be able to return to school on Monday. She was hopeful that her mother would be allowed back when the Supreme Court makes its ruling and so didn’t want to lose a whole year of school by staying in hiding until then.
“I’m going to have to hide for three or four months after all if I want to stay here, which I do,” she said.
“If the price I have to pay to stay here is losing a school year, then I’m willing to take that risk. Besides if I was to go back to Moldova I’d lose more than a year because they’d put me back three years so that I could catch up. I don’t know perfect Russian and it would be difficult with the grammar and everything. At the moment I do maths, chemistry and physics in Greek, there it’s totally different.”
But Irena said it wasn’t just the educational system that was different, everything was.
“I went back three years ago and everything had changed. It wasn’t the place I remembered leaving and I felt so strange. Everything was built up and was so unfamiliar.”
The 16-year-old said although the adoption was off the cards, her friend’s mother was more than happy to have her live with them until her own mother returned.
“She loves me like her own daughter and they’re happy to help me out. They just want to make sure that I’m okay and try to make me laugh because they know I have things on my mind all the time.”
But although she has a roof over her head, food on her plate and a change of clothes, she only has ?250 left out of the ?400 her mother gave her before leaving.
“I had to pay to go and see the lawyers in Nicosia and I also went to see a lawyer in Limassol,” she explained.
Asked what she planned to do once the money ran out, the teenager couldn’t say.
Another practicality which looks set to become a problem is the upkeep of their flat.
Irena said the rent was covered till the end of the month but that after “I really don’t know”.
“Time will show [what will happen],” she said.
Asked what she did to fill her days she said she mostly spent time with her friend.
“We go to the beach sometimes, meet up with friends, play cards, watch DVD, play playstation… I don’t want to go out much because I don’t want to risk getting caught so we stay at home and do chores together. It’s fun because we gossip and the time passes and I don’t even realise it.”
But her summer holiday is about to come to abrupt end this Monday when her chum goes back to school. To make things worse, despite putting on a brave front, she misses her mum desperately.
“When it first happened I was about to burst into tears, but I thought I shouldn’t cry so that I can be strong for my mum…
“We speak every day and yesterday [Thursday] we spoke on web camera and I saw her.
At that moment I missed her so much and was about to cry. It’s only been a few days since she’s been deported but it feels like I haven’t seen her in ages. Now that we’re apart we just appreciate what we had and the normal, family rows we had seem so insignificant. I really miss her.”
No one was yesterday available for comment at the civil registry and migration department.
