Supreme court backs Jordanian deported despite EU spouse

THE SUPREME Court yesterday ruled that the deportation from Cyprus in September of a Jordanian man married to an EU citizen “is null and void”.

Jordanian Maher Ghazi Ahmed Bashkhuj became the latest victim of the Immigration Department’s deportation drive four months ago when he was arrested and detained as an illegal immigrant and was deported back to Jordan within 24 hours. He was not even given the opportunity to take his personal belongings with him.

Bashkhuj arrived in Cyprus in late 2004 and applied for political asylum on December 23, 2004. By August 19 this year, his application was still under review.

On August 26, he married Latvian woman Diana Paparida near Paphos. The Immigration authorities advised him to withdraw his application. He was assured that as he was marrying an EU citizen, he would be free to live with her in Cyprus.
Bashkuj’s lawyer, Leonidas Georgiou yesterday faxed a copy of the Supreme Court decision to the Cyprus Mail, which stated that, “Mr Bashkhuj’s name must now be taken off the stop list of people coming into Cyprus.”

The lawyer said that the decision proves that the Immigration Department “had no right to deport him and I expect Bashkhuj back on the island within the next 24 hours.”

In December, Paparida gave birth to the couple’s first child and has been campaigning for her husband’s return ever since he was deported. She is overjoyed that her efforts, together with those of her lawyer, to overturn what they saw as an illegal deportation, have been successful.

The Cyprus Mail was unable to get a response from the Immigration Department.

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.