Filenews 4 May 2021 - by Dora Christodoulou
A definitive end is now being made to the practice of a few Georgian passport holders arriving in Cyprus as visitors and ending up staying in the territory of the Republic applying for political refugee status.
The issue has been of strong concern in recent months to the police authorities of the province, according to information revealed to "F" mainly after the arrest of several persons for the offences of illegal residence in the territory of the Republic. These are Georgians who have been identified and arrested on different occasions in parts of Paphos province and who were found to have a common background in their actions and aspirations. It was found in particular that they had all arrived in Cyprus in 2019 via Larnaca Airport and were granted a residence permit as guests. However, it was subsequently found that everyone applied for political asylum. When their request was rejected, they made a request to open their file and their request was also rejected. Since then, they have all remained in the territory of the Republic illegally.
It was also found that some of them had visited Cyprus before and were deported, but appeared to have returned to Cyprus via the occupied areas. In all cases these Georgians were detained until their deportation was settled.
Just the day before yesterday another person from this country was arrested in Paphos, having violated the prohibition decrees on movement at night and having been found to be under the influence of drugs. It became apparent to the Police that he was an illegal resident of Cyprus.
