Archbishop pledges help for family in limbo

THE ARCHBISHOP yesterday promised to help a Lebanese family find a solution to their 18-year immigration ordeal.

Rami Trabelsies and his family came to Cyprus in 1990, escaping civil war in Lebanon. From that time they have been living in limbo because the authorities refused to give them long-term residency rights. Renewing their temporary residency permit every year, the father of four has struggled to make a living.

His daughter is set to see five years of university education go down the drain because the family cannot find the £8,000 needed for the final semester of her degree. The family cannot get a loan because of their precarious immigration status, and are missing out on grants that would have helped them had their naturalisation been accepted.

After yesterday’s meeting, Chrysostomos II said he would speak with the Interior Ministry. “He has promised to help us, he will call the Minister on our behalf and ask him to grant us citizenship,” Trabelsies said yesterday.

Daughter Nadia is about to get her bachelor degree in communications at the University of Indianapolis, as part of a degree course with Intercollege that she began five years ago. She has studied in Cyprus until now, but must spend the last semester in the US to complete her degree – for which she needs £8,000.

Trabelsies added that the family has until September 19 to find the money.
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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.