North Cyprus police arrests woman and her 6 children for trying to enter south Cyprus to seek asylum

A 33-year-old Syrian mother of six was arrested in north Cyprus after attempting to enter south Cyprus to claim asylum.

The woman turned herself in to the Lefkosia police headquarters just after midnight on Tuesday, accompanied by her six children, who are aged between 7 and 14 years old.

The arrest took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning. She appeared in a Lefkosia court on Wednesday.

Police said the woman had told the police that her husband lives in south Cyprus, that she had arrived from Turkey by boat alongside 15 other people, and that she had paid a total of €12,000 to make the journey. ‘

The woman had reportedly also told the police that when she landed in Cyprus, she was taken by a vehicle to a wooden area and told that she was in south Cyprus, before then realising that she was in the north, and asking a passerby for help.

Police requested that the woman be detained at a student dormitory alongside her children for a total of 15 days.

***What will happen to the woman and her children after those 15 days is not yet clear as north Cyprus have no legal framework to allow those arriving from dangerous parts of the world to seek asylum.

As such, people such as the woman in question often get treated by the north as illegal immigrants.

As a result of this, many would-be asylum seekers who arrive in the north attempt to cross the buffer zone into south Cyprus which is bound by international law to assess asylum claims filed on its territory.

The United Nations has in recent weeks accused the government of Cyprus (south) of pushing would-be asylum seekers into the buffer zone.

Cyprus Mail