PROFESSIONAL dancers from Ghana brought to Cyprus by UNESCO and the International Theatre Institute for a Festival of Ancient Greek Drama entered the country with false passports.
But the discrepancy was only spotted when three of the group of 14 tried to go to Egypt using their own passports on Tuesday.
The dancers arrived on August 26 to give two performances at the drama festival in Paphos, organised by theatre director Nicos Schiafkalis, president of the Cyprus International Theatre Institute.
They travelled with cultural officers from the Ghanaian government.
Schiafkalis told the Cyprus Mail that the dancers had planned to leave the island on August 31, but Middle East Airlines turned them away because there were no available seats.
Two did nevertheless manage to travel out, leaving 12 stuck in Cyprus. Then on Wednesday three of them tried to take a boat to Egypt from Limassol.
But immigration police stopped them at passport control on suspicion of illegal entry because their papers showed no entry stamp.
On-the-spot explanations proved insufficient, so they were taken down to Limassol police station for eight hours of questioning until 9pm.
They then admitted to flying in with passports issued in the names of the performers originally invited to the festival, who had pulled out at the last minute. They kept the names, but switched the photos so immigration officers wouldn’t be suspicious.
When they tried to leave the country, they used their own passports, which did not have entry stamps.
“To have passports made out in different names is a typical offence and we had to decide whether or not there was an intention to fraud,” said Limassol divisional police commander Charalambous Koulentis.
The dancers may have used their own passports to leave as Immigration officer impounded their first passports on arrival.
In the end, police contacted the festival organisers and let them go. Five are staying in Drousia with Schiafkalis, and the other seven are in Limassol.
Immigration has given them until September 21 to find seats on an alternative flight.
But an article in Politis newspaper yesterday provoked outrage for confusing the Ghanaian troupe with the world famous Zulu warriors from South Africa, in Cyprus for a series of performances from August 30 to September 1, in Nicosia and Paphos.
“We brought Zulu dancers and we arrested them,” shrieked the front-page headline.
Police denied that the dancers had been arrested, saying they were in for questioning only.
The South African Honorary Consulate General yesterday criticised the newspaper for debasing a professional event that had raised money for the Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients and Friends.
The Ulundi Zulus left Larnaca on September 2. “Under no circumstances were any of the members of this group arrested nor did any of them stay behind in Cyprus,” the statement said.
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.
