KISA demands release of detainee

By Constantinos Psillides

A PAKISTANI national is being held at the Menoyia detention centre while his wife is being monitored by the mental health services and his six-month old child was handed over to a foster family, according to migrant support group KISA.

KISA is demanding he be immediately released to take care of his family.

It said the Pakistani has been living in Cyprus for the last 11 years. In 2010 he married a European citizen – a woman from Bulgaria – with whom he had a child in March this year.

The man paid a number of  agents to secure a residency permit. They claimed to have been working with the civil registry and migration department.

KISA claims to have the names of the agents, who they said have been taking advantage of migrant workers repeatedly. “Some of them we have already reported to the police,” it said.

Unaware of his residency status, the man was arrested 20 days after his child was born and been at Menoyia since. When he was detained, his wife sought help from welfare in Limassol but they deemed her unfit and placed her under psychiatric, handing the baby over to a foster family.

The father is now set for deportation.

“We strongly condemn the practice of breaking up families, especially of people married to European citizens,” said KISA. We demand the immediate release of the father so he can take care of his family and to be granted residency status.”

It called on the Ombudsman and the Child Rights Commissioner to launch a probe into possible violations by welfare officials and migration.

Migration officials did not yesterday return any calls for comment.

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.