Filenews 12 November 2021 - by Dora Christodoulou
The police axe fell heavily on the heads of its members for last night's unprecedented escape of the boat of 61 irregular migrants from Kato Paphos where it had been since Wednesday. A total of 12 members of the force were suspended by decision of the Chief of Police, since it was judged that they were responsible for mistakes or omissions that led to the failure to prevent the escape of these people in time.
According to the information, these are 11 members of the Pafos Police Directorate, of various departments, who according to the competent authorities were responsible for the task of guarding the 61 Lebanese and Syrians and a member of the Port Police.
Despite the massive attribution of preliminary responsibilities to members of the force, however, Paphos has been in the heated debate since Thursday night about the circumstances under which the grotesque incident occurred. There are specific questions about how the migrants managed to cut the ropes of the boat and free it, when everyone knows how hard these ropes are, anticipating that they possessed knives. This is declared unacceptable in the case of a case under investigation involving foreigners who arrived on the territory of the Republic illegally.
Answers are even sought on the issue of the lack of guarding of the boat, since it was not officially announced that the police investigations had been completed and the foreigners were free to act as they wished in matters of their movement.
With the announcement of the availabilities a short while ago, public debates on social media have intensified, as to whether only those responsible for the lack of management of the case, as it turned out to be de facto, are responsible , or also low-ranking police officers who had the role of guard in the area.
