TWENTY-FOUR immigrants being held “indefinitely” in Nicosia’s Block 10 have threatened to go on hunger strike next Monday if the government does not end their detention.
The 24 detainees yesterday sent a letter to the Ombudswoman, Interior Ministry, UNHCR and Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, highlighting their plight and calling for help.
The immigrants have been kept in the immigration detention centre at Nicosia’s Central Prison, more commonly known as Block 10, from between six months and one year.
According to a spokesman for the group, the group are a mixture of students with valid visas and asylum seekers who committed petty crimes, like driving without a licence and then found themselves locked in jail indefinitely. One man from Nigeria who faces deportation is married to a Cypriot.
Chigozie Emegoakor, also from Nigeria, said many students wanted to go back to their studies after serving their sentence but instead are being detained for an open-ended period while the authorities plan their deportation.
Others, like him, are asylum seekers. His application was rejected by the Asylum Service and Reviewing Authority. He has since lodged an appeal in the Supreme Court.
“I am married to a Filipino and have two children who were born here in Cyprus. If they deport me, what will they do with my family? They are not asylum seekers,” he said.
It has often been the case in the past that third country nationals who commit a crime, no matter how big or small, have their status redefined by the state. They are considered “undesirables” and procedures for their deportation usually launched.
In the case of asylum seekers, many who may have served a one-month sentence for a minor offence are then detained until their application is processed, which can take up to two years.
Last June, Interior Minister Neoklis Sylikiotis, addressing a migration conference organised by the European Parliament, said the government wanted to show its human face by setting a maximum detention of six months for those cases where a detainee has not been charged with an offence or has already served his sentence.
“The government’s philosophy is for the full respect of human rights, life and dignity, whether a person is legal or illegal,” he said.
According to yesterday’s letter, one of the 24 immigrants has been in detention for one year already, while others have been incarcerated for between six and 12 months.
“We have become completely tired of the inhuman and degrading decision of the government to keep us in indefinite detention for life just because we are asylum seekers,” said the letter, signed by the 24 detainees, comprising nationals from Nigeria, Cameroon, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Kurdistan, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
“How can a living being who is not a criminal be detained under hard conditions without a definite time to be released, while even one who breaks the law knows he/she can be in jail for a specific period of time and finish his jail sentence,” they said.
The group said if the authorities did not solve their problems or promise their liberty by September 15, they would go on a hunger strike: “So our deadly spirits will forever reign here and curse Cyprus from generation to generation. After all, it is the right of everyone to seek refuge, and the government has a responsibility to protect us and not to kill or leave us in prison for a life sentence.”
The detainees called on the government to recall the many Cypriot refugees that were received and accepted by other countries following the Turkish invasion in 1974.
The group said they did not wish to break any laws or be a nuisance, and noted their desire for “peaceful solution” to their problems.
