Pakistani man unaware asylum application had been rejected

A 25-YEAR-OLD Pakistani man accused of illegally working said he had only worked for an hour and that he hadn’t even known his political asylum application had been denied at the time.

The young man, who will remain in police custody until his trial, told the court that he hadn’t even heard back from authorities regarding his asylum application when he had sought employment at a Nicosia construction site last year.

The 25-year-old worker was told that he his temporary residency had also expired following the denial of his asylum application and yet he had remained in Cyprus without securing permission from the Civil Registry and Migration department.

“How do you plead?” the state prosecutor asked.

“I wasn’t sent a letter,” a baffled 25-year-old replied through his court translator.

The judge said she would take his response as a plea of “not guilty”.

In light of the Pakistani man’s assertions, the prosecution asked to investigate the matter further. The request was made on the grounds that the information of whether or not the man had been informed that his political application had been turned down was not in the file.

According to the prosecution, the alleged offences were committed between July 30, 2009 and January 26, 2010 when the 25-year-old’s political asylum application was rejected on July 29, 2007.

A 75-year-old man, who was accused of illegally employing the worker, also denied the charge.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.