Airport employee arrested

A 51-YEAR-OLD Larnaca airport employee was yesterday remanded in eight-day custody for allegedly smuggling foreign workers from Lebanon into the country, reported CyBC.

The man was arrested in connection with illegal immigrants arrested in Limassol recently who had been deported off the island in the past, it said.

According to the channel, the foreigners paid $1,400 each in order to secure their unhindered entrance into Cyprus. They allegedly paid $800 to a go-between at Beirut airport, who told them they should carry a red bag so that the suspect could recognise them and help them through passport control. Once past the primary check, they allegedly paid the local contact a further $600.

CyBC said the man had admitted to helping at least 20 illegal immigrants enter the country in this way.

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.