A MAN arrested last week and slated for deportation despite having lived in Cyprus for 23 years, was released on Tuesday night, though his future still remains uncertain.
The release followed the intervention of Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis, who requested the withdrawal of the deportation order issued by Chief Migration Officer Anny Shakalli.
Simos Ioannou, 26, arrived in Cyprus with his parents and eight siblings in 1984, fleeing Lebanon after the war broke out. They were all baptised Christian Orthodox and apart from Simos, the entire family are Cypriot citizens.
Despite Ioannou’s release, he is still considered an illegal immigrant in Cyprus, because unlike the rest of his family, his application to the Immigration Department was previously rejected. This was due to a criminal offence he had committed that was punished with a fine.
“At this moment Mr Ioannou’s file is being examined so we can see if he can be naturalised,” the Interior Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Lazaros Savvides, told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
“You understand that the fact that he has a criminal record may go against him,” he said, adding: “Just because his entire family are Cypriot citizens does not mean that it will be easy for him to receive citizenship”.
After his release, Simos said “I would never have imagined the things that I experienced there [prison]. I met people – immigrants – who were being kept there for more than a year, children held for entire months, without anyone familiar around them.
“These people are suffering. I think and wonder how they can endure it for so long, without knowing what will happen to them.”
Questions have been raised over the means used by police to arrest Ioannou.
According to Ioannou, a man contacted him by phone and said: “I heard you are a good electrician and I want you to install an appliance at my home. I would like to meet up with you”.
Ioannou agreed and they set up a time to meet at Nicosia Municipality’s car park, opposite the hotel Holiday Inn last Wednesday night.
When Ioannou arrived, more than ten police officers surrounded him, arrested him and took him to Block 10 at the Central Prison.
