Filenews 1 September 2023
The six Syrians caught last week as members of a smuggling ring of irregular migrants in our country will be treated differently.
Yesterday, the day that the 8-day detention order expired, the Police contacted the Legal Service and presented the case file with the testimonies and evidence gathered so far.
The evaluation carried out showed that no such evidence emerged to indicate that there was indeed any activity of the ring, although information from Lebanon and here led them to coordinate the arrival of irregular migrants from Syria via boats to Cyprus.
It was also considered that the evidence gathered was not sufficient to present the six arrested at trial before a court, so it was decided to treat them differently. Specifically, they were served with a decision to return to their country and, at the same time, procedures were initiated for the Director of the Civil Registry and Migration Department to issue detention and deportation decrees, on the basis that they are allegedly involved in a migrant smuggling ring, thus raising public security issues of the state.
The six will continue to remain in detention until they are deported, while it is not excluded that they will take legal action for their detention and their future deportation.
As reported to "F" by the police, investigations into this case continue, after orders have been issued to disclose telecommunications data of the suspects to determine if they were cooperating with other people in Lebanon or Syria. As explained to us, the turn the case has taken does not mean that behind the arrivals of the last two months with boats of irregular migrants in Syria there are no rings, since smugglers know how to move and where to end up, while there are testimonies of migrants that they pay large amounts to bring them from Syria to Cyprus.
