Cyprus-Forum.com

[miltiades]

It makes my blood boil when such events occur in Cyprus.
The cabaret prostitutes are given extended permits to remain in Cyprus and yet a Cancer carer who has looked after this Cancer sufferer is deemed as an undesirable and arrested : Lets take these idiots to task on this forum let us email the proper authorities and demand that they investigate the even with the utmost urgency. I will draft a number of emails and send them to the relative authorities.
What a disgrace. !

""Cancer victim: police threw me on the floor to deport my only helper
By Stefanos Evripidou

A FORMER cancer patient with limited ability to move freely, see or hear, has been left abandoned by the state for the last two weeks after migration officials took his carer away in the middle of the night.

The authorities refused to renew the permit for domestic carer Luminada Vicerra Catayong, who has been by his side for the last five years. Instead, they visited Antonis Katsaris on the night of February 4, taking away his eyes and ears in a manner that allegedly left the disabled Antonis lying injured on the floor. His subsequent complaint filed at Larnaca police station has since disappeared.

In the meantime, Antonis has been at home alone, unable to cook, bathe or even change his clothes.

Despite his pleas, he was informed on Friday that the authorities were going ahead with her deportation. It was stopped in the last minute after the intervention of Interior Ministry Permanent Secretary Lazaros Savvides.

The story of Antonis, 42, from Larnaca, raises serious questions as to the level of due process afforded people who fall foul of the law. It also serves to expose the evident state neglect and lack of social welfare or care for the most vulnerable in society.

Antonis suffered from cancer in 1988. Radiotherapy got rid of the cancer, but left him with only 10 per cent vision in both eyes and 20 per cent hearing. The treatment was so intense, it burnt and shrank his upper body muscle tissue, leaving the former body builder unable to perform simple tasks like lifting his arms to take off his shirt. His neck is a third of its normal size, his tongue has shrunk, while the salivary glands in his mouth and throat have all been burnt. He cannot produce saliva and must carry a glass of water everywhere he goes to keep his throat moist.

It can take Antonis up to two hours to eat a meal due to his decaying teeth, minute tongue and lack of saliva. Occasionally, his dysfunctional glands cause him to choke on food, requiring a helping hand to unblock the air passage. His speech is impaired. Every day, he needs drops in his ears and eyes and cream rubbed on his dried out skin. At night, he takes the hearing aids out so his ears don't get infected. This renders him completely deaf. He has no sense of smell.

Antonis' condition is in a constant state of decline. The only option is to slow down his deterioration by fixing his teeth and having a series of eye injections to prevent complete blindness creeping in. But state services do not provide such options.

This is the man that the authorities have left alone without his carer since February 4. While her deportation papers were being processed, not one person from the Larnaca welfare services visited Antonis to check on his condition. Nor has anyone looked into his application for welfare benefits, submitted over five months ago. The only visits Antonis got was from immigration officials.

Last July, Luminada's residence permit expired. Antonis sought advice from the Nicosia Migration Department on how to extend her stay. He was assured that all he needed was a letter explaining his medical condition and Luminada could stay on a short-term permit, renewable every year.

However, after submitting the letter on August 28, 2007, he heard nothing from the authorities. In January, he went to Larnaca migration office to inquire about the application. Migration officials tried to arrest Luminada, citing a deportation order dated October 17, 2007. It was the first time either of them had seen the order. After much protest, they let the two return home. Antonis filed a complaint with the Ombudswoman, who agreed to investigate his case on January 14.

On further inquiry by the Sunday Mail, it transpired that the hot and cold attitude of migration officials came from the fact that a family member was lobbying heavily for Luminada's deportation. Officials within the migration department and police force confirmed they had received letters from Antonis' father demanding her deportation. It appears the father did not approve of the close relationship that grew between Antonis and Luminada and so applied pressure on the authorities to detain and deport her. When called, the father refused to make any comment.

On February 4, at around 8pm, Luminada heard a knock at the door. According to Antonis, as he opened the door, four plain-clothed immigration officers barged into the house.

“One of them pushed me into the house saying he was here to arrest Luminada. I tried to stop them but one of them twisted my arm behind my back while the other grabbed my legs. I was shouting as they took her away and tried to grab her leg. They threw me on the floor and one of them put his leg on my chest and throat. I thought I was going to die,” said Antonis.

“I still have cuts on my hands, a bruised leg and sores. They left me lying on the floor as they took her away. They ripped her trousers and my jumper in the process,” said Antonis bringing out the torn clothes for inspection.

Antonis went to Larnaca police station immediately after to report the episode. Police advised him not to, implying that the officers would only counter-claim that he had hit them first. Antonis insisted and went to the hospital for a full medical examination to support his complaint.

The incident kept Antonis awake all night. By 5.30am, he was at Larnaca migration office to find out why they had taken Luminada away. Frustrated with their answers and in despair, Antonis climbed the water tank on the roof of the building.

“I lost it, everyone had abandoned me. I threw my hearing aids down and just started shouting for Luminada. I couldn't even hear my own voice. It was total silence. When they brought her, I couldn't even see if it was really her.”

After 90 minutes, and a promise to release her in a few days, Antonis got down from the tank. That was February 5. Since then, he has been going from house to house for his meals. He visits Luminada twice a day to take her clothes and food.

When asked, police told the Sunday Mail they had no record of Antonis' complaint, but rather had received a complaint by migration officers claiming they had been attacked by a disabled man.
“They felt sorry for him and chose not to arrest him there and then for obstructing the course of justice,” explained one officer at Larnaca police station.

“Look at me. How could I hit three men and one woman? I can't even raise my arms to take off the clothes I've been wearing the last 10 days,” said Antonis.

“I've been alone since February 4. I live in a hole. I use the fridge as a table top. I have to leave the window open every Sunday so my friend can wake me to go to church as I can't hear the alarm without my aids,” he added.

On Friday, he learnt that the authorities were going to deport Luminada the following day, in the process losing the only witness to the night-time arrest. However, the missing complaint is not first on Andonis' mind.

“I can't be cured. Just let me die as I want, not as they want. Let her come and stay with me,” he said.

The Interior Ministry's Lazaros Savvides was contacted on the same day and acted immediately. “If his condition is as you say and he insists on her presence, there should be no difficulty in letting her stay,” said the permanent secretary.

“I have asked for police to collect his medical report and send it to me. In the meantime, she won’t be deported until I decide based on the reports how much he can or can not live alone,” said Savvides.



Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

[webbo]

Do not know who to send an e-mail to Miltiades, sorry.
Can you tell us please? Absolute disgrace. You would not think that events like this still happen in this day and age.......................

Cheers
Bubbles x

[Jay&rea]

This is a particularly sad and cruel story, and whats more it has not been resolved yet.

I wrote by email to Mrs Anni Shakali (Director of Population and Migration Department of Ministry of Interior) and explained the situation to her. She was the one responsible for reviewing the case. I got no reply from her. I sent the email again but still nothing. I then wrote to the commissioner for administration (ombudswoman) who promised to look into the case. Her role is to look into whether citizens are being treated fairly by the State. When things got even more desperate i wrote to the Minister of Interior Dr. Patsalides, but again heard nothing. I also emailed the permanent secretary of the ministry of interior, Mr Lazaros Savvides but again got no response.

Eventually the Ombudswomans report was published on the 20 of February and Antonis carer was released on the 21 of February after spending 17 days in Aradipou police station. The report is quite damming against the director of the Population and Migration Department. If any one would like a copy i can send it to them it is however in Greek. The gist of it is that Antonis should have be allowed to renew the work permit for his carer.

No apology has been received from the officials concerned let alone any compensation for the immense pain and suffering inflicted on Antoni's and the considerable expense he has incurred to secure rights he was entitled to.

Further more now they have decided they will let him renew the permit for a year the immigration people are wanting him to pay some 1500 euros in expenses to cover things like repatriation guarantee, national insurance payment (including those for the time she was incarcerated) etc.
Antonis is of limited mean and severely disabled, basically he survives off his disability pension, out of which he has to pay his rent, carer wages, bill and so on. He approached the Welfare office for help last July but so far they have not been helpful although they are now suppose to be urgently reviewing his case.

As for the way the immigration police treated Antonis, well that is just unforgivable. Antonis has come under some pressure from the police to drop any case against then. It is still not certain if the complain he made to the police and the subsequent medical report by the Larnaca hospital still exists, as when the Cyprus Mail inquired the Police said there was no such report.

It is sad that such things go on in Cyprus, it is terrible isn't it that the authorities try to cover up everything and ignore people. Those causing the suffering will probably get away with it.

I will keep you posted

Cheers
John

[laptachap]

shame on them