Filenews 28 June 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
The industry of manufacturing forged documents in the occupied areas of the Republic of Cyprus is flourishing and growing more and more. This can be seen to an alarming degree at Paphos airport, where one after another, foreigners appear as citizens of EU Member States, when documents they are in possession of are proved to be false and which they confess to buying from the occupied territories.
In the last six months alone, the last case being last Sunday, hundreds of cases of possession of false travel documents during passport control were detected at the second airport of the Republic, of which the vast majority now concerns Africans trying to go to European destinations as European citizens. In all subsequent examinations, it was found that the passports and IDs of the persons in question were forged and their holders were a third-country national and not European citizens, as they were trying to appear.
In all cases, those arrested have admitted that the travel documents they presented at Paphos International Airport were forged. Most admitted to buying them in the occupied areas, while some cited finding them on the street or in hotels they were staying in.
The confirmation of this illegal activity, starting from the occupied territories, is a headache for the authorities, who are looking for a solution to the problem that is already evolving.
