A 23-YEAR-old Palestinian asylum seeker has been unable to secure travel permission to be with his father who is scheduled to have lifesaving surgery in Jordan next week because of the authorities’ failure to examine his file.
“I kept being told to wait. I was sent from one department to another and still they kept saying wait, go here, go there, wait,” said Rabah, who asked for his surname to be withheld.
“I have been doing everything according to the law for one and a half years and I kept asking for my case to be examined. I respected the law and waited. Now I’ve asked for permission to fly to Jordan to be with my father who has to have an operation for cancer and again I’ve been told to wait.”
The 23-year-old, who came to Cyprus in April last year and has since been waiting for his asylum application to be reviewed, said he could not wait any longer and that he was going to leave the island with or without permission. He said hoped he would not be stopped from re-entering upon his return.
He said: “I don’t know what I will do if I am not allowed back into Cyprus. I have nowhere else to go. But I want to be with my father during this time and I have to go.
Whether I get permission to travel or not, I’m not going to leave my father alone, because God knows what might happen to him if anything goes wrong… I will go. Whatever will happen, will happen.”
Rabah said his father was first told he would need surgery in May. He was scheduled for an operation on September 5.
“My eldest brother is in jail, my younger brother is too young and my mother is too elderly to travel with him. I’m the only one that can go. It’s not for a holiday but for a humanitarian reason. I’ll be in the hospital the entire time,” he said.
The Palestinian man said he had applied to the migration department for permission to travel four months ago. He had also applied to the immigration department for the renewal of his pink slip. He said he had received no response except to wait for an answer.
At the end of June, immigrant support group KISA contacted the migration department and was told Rabah should give them a medical letter about his father’s condition and a letter outlining the situation. After this failed, KISA wrote to the migration department.
Eventually KISA was told that Rabah’s file was under consideration by the director of the civil registry and migration department.
The immigrant support group said it had still received no response from Anny Shakalli’s office. KISA also said it had written to the Interior Minister and had yet to receive a reply.
At his wits’ end about what to do, Rabah said he had gone ahead and booked his ticket for Monday and was due to return on September 17.
“I’ve waited and waited and waited. I’ve been told to go from one department to another and nothing. I can no longer wait. I’m going to have to go and be with my father,” he said.