North Cyprus begins investigation into fraudulent college for permits

The TRNC higher education standards authority (Yodak) and the Turkish Cypriot police on Thursday launched an investigation into a “higher education institution” which has been linked to a large criminal network.

The investigation is based on the arrest of a Pakistani national in Gonyeli last month, who had received €10,000 in exchange for creating a forged student visa.

The “higher education institution” at which his client “studied” was called the “Cyprus Massachusetts Centre of Innovation”.

The Pakistani national is accused of having created forged documents for a fee with the aim of allowing third country nationals to live legally in north Cyprus, and of doing so systematically and in league with others.

There are a total of 39 “higher education institutions” in north Cyprus, which operate separately to its 36 universities.

The institutions operate outside Yodak’s competency and are entirely subject to the TRNC’s ‘education ministry’.

According to news website Haber Kibris, there are a total of 10,000 people registered at those institutions, 4,000 of whom are active students. The whereabouts of the other 6,000 people are unknown.

Yodak and the Turkish Cypriot police will now carry out a series of inspections at the premises of the 39 institutions.