Filenews 19 September 2022 - by Natasha Christoforou
The uncontrolled dimensions that have taken on this year, the migratory flows to our country, mainly from African countries through occupied territories, are also highlighted through the dozens of arrests of the Police, which broke every record this year and concern traffickers and persons who are trying to leave Cyprus with travel documents of others.
According to the data obtained by "F", in the first eight months of the year, a total of 278 people were arrested, 144 at Larnaka airport and 134 at Paphos airport, who tried to travel irregularly to Central European countries.
Most of them, according to the police spokesman, Christos Andreou, were in possession of genuine passports or identity cards of European countries, but belonged to other persons. The vast majority of the persons arrested when it was found that the photo of the travel document they handed over for passport control depicts another person, are asylum seekers from sub-Saharan African countries, such as Kongo and Nigeria. A case was also recorded, where a person managed to pass the check in Cyprus, but was located at an airport abroad and transported back to our country.
As Mr. Andreou mentioned, "now the Police Officers who check travel documents at the two airports, receive special training in order to recognize both from the behaviour of the offender and from the documents, if it is the person who presents himself".
Some cases, however, are grotesque, the most typical of which is the case of a foreigner, who was arrested a few days ago at Paphos airport, who disguised himself as a woman in order to be able to travel with the identity card he had obtained.
Most migrants who try to travel irregularly from Larnaca airport, choose Germany, France and Belgium, while in Paphos many are destined for Italy, due to low-cost direct flights.
The Police, according to Mr. Andreou, for each case of a foreigner who is arrested, also conducts investigations into the persons who provided them with the travel documents, who in most cases are their relatives who reside permanently and legally in Central European countries. Recently, in fact, traffickers were arrested at Larnaka airport on two occasions. However, cases were also identified where they bought a passport or id card, either from the occupied territories or from the internet. "These cases on our part are immediately registered before the Court and we have already had many prison sentences for them"
Handcuffs to 82 traffickers in eight months
A large increase is also observed in the arrests of migrant smugglers, to the identification of which special importance was given, as Mr. Andreou explained. In the first eight months of 2022, the Police handcuffed 82 migrant smugglers, in 47 cases. At the same time last year, 50 were arrested and in 2020 only 27. "Every time migrants arrive, we try to track down the smugglers through interviews with those arriving. With the arrests, the message is also sent to the outside world that traffickers are identified and convicted in Cyprus. We have had many convictions of traffickers this year and in a recent case in Paphos, a six-year prison sentence was imposed", suggested Mr. Andreou.
