THE COMMISSIONER for Children’s Rights pledged yesterday to investigate reports that a four-year-old boy was turned down by three kindergartens in Limassol because of the colour of his skin.
The boy’s parents – a Pakistani father and Sri Lankan mother – are failed political asylum seekers but have been granted special permission for temporary residence from the Minister of the Interior on humanitarian grounds.
The family – who in addition to four-year-old Ali have a seventh-month-old toddler – live in a rundown house in the Ayios Ioannis area of Limassol. As they are not entitled to welfare, the family relies on financial assistance help from friends.
Under Cypriot policy and practice, children of foreign nationals who have no status are not entitled to state assistance.
The parents claim they tried to enrol Ali into three kindergartens, only to be refused, each time on different grounds.
“I tried to get my baby in school,” Ali’s father told reporters. “But they [either] said ‘we are full, we have no space, come back next year’.”
The parents say these are merely pretexts to hide the kindergartens’ true motive, which is to deny Ali admittance due to his nationality.
Apparently one of the schools told them outright they did not accept children of foreign nationals.
Asked to comment yesterday, Commissioner for Children’s Rights Leda Koursoumba said that if the claims are valid then this was “totally unacceptable,” adding that her office would investigate.
“We shall try to mobilise the Education Ministry and get something done about it,” Koursoumba told the Mail.
“Even if the family is not residing here legally, the children cannot be denied [access to education] because of the status of the parents,” she said.
There was some good news for Ali’s parents yesterday. Since their plight was publicized, two private kindergartens have offered to take in their son.
Doros Polycarpou, head of immigrant support group KISA, said Ali’s situation was unfortunately the rule, not the exception.
“When it comes to accepting someone who is different, our society is way behind. We’ve got a real problem in this regard.
“Given the state’s treatment of foreign nationals, especially those without status, is it any wonder that this mentality trickles down to society?” he said.
Speaking to the Mail, Polycarpou said he was aware of similar ‘horror stories’ from public schools. In one case he recalled, a teacher told her Greek Cypriot pupils not to sit next to a boy because he was “an Arab.”
