Cyprus-Forum.com

[YFred]

Can’t take it any more
By Nathan Morley

‘I had to tell the tourists that they could not eat’

A CYPRIOT restaurateur, who runs a chain of Indian eateries in the Limassol district, said yesterday he was at his wits end and may have to close his businesses because of continued harassment from immigration.

Marios Vakanas, whose operates the popular ‘Flavours of India’ restaurants in Limassol, Erimi and Pissouri, said that three times in the past two months, immigration officials have picked up Indians who work for his chain, all legally.

The High Court in Nicosia has just cleared two of the Indian nationals of any wrong doing and released them from prison after an immigration department blunder.

The men were arrested in March after it was discovered that their documentation was submitted to authorities just twenty days late by an independent employment agent.

The pair were left terrified after they were thrown into jail, left without food for a day and then told they would serve a four-month prison sentence. The court ruled that they should never have been put behind bars.

Vakanas said the stream of harassment has been constant with immigration officials going so far as to sitting in cars outside his restaurants waiting to pounce.

He said the final straw came on Tuesday, when; his chef and kitchen assistant were arrested in full view of customers because of another mix-up, caused by immigration officials with their paperwork.

“Shocked customers were just sitting there as our chef and his kitchen assistant were marched off in the middle of the evening, I had to tell the tourists that they could not eat and those who were halfway through their meals were not charged,” he said.

The men were held at a local police station four hours, but released later in the evening when it was established that they were working legally.

“My staff and I have constantly faced the humiliation of the immigration department. Enough is enough, I cannot win a battle that is fixed,” he said. “The way they were treated…it’s affected me psychologically. I cannot handle seeing people suffer at the hands of immigration officials any longer, it’s making me ill, I can’t sleep at night,” Vakanas said.

“These good men were treated like this just because of their colour, nothing else. After the first arrest I was called from the police station by employees at 1am, they were starving, freezing and traumatised. The police said he had missed the meal time, even though he had been there for 14 hours.”

In the past few months’ police officers in Limassol have increased swoops to tackle illegal immigration, but have faced a barrage of criticism from Immigrant Support Groups and Human Rights organisations for their treatment of the migrants.

Asking not to be identified, a visa agent who deals with processing paperwork for immigrants, commented on the High Court case and expressed surprise that a 20-day delay could lead to such a harsh prison sentence. “Yes it is very unusual, and sounds suspicious at best, I cannot explain it,” he said.

The agent also admitted that immigration officials are often insensitive to his clients and could be at worst “blatantly racist.”

However, speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, barrister Andrew Klydes said he was not surprised at the prison sentence, and pointed the finger of blame at an antiquated processing system.

“Unfortunately many people do follow the correct procedures in obtaining the right to work, but owing to bureaucracy, many cannot generally complete the procedure in time and therefore they are declared illegal,” he said.




Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009

[james_mav]

Will institutional racism ever end in the RoC?

Perhaps when the turkish army leaves.

[YFred]

Will institutional racism ever end in the RoC?

Perhaps when the turkish army leaves.

Wishful thinking! I am afraid this one you will have to do all by yourselves.

[james_mav]

Will institutional racism ever end in the RoC?

Perhaps when the turkish army leaves.

Wishful thinking! I am afraid this one you will have to do all by yourselves.

Is English your second language? The turkish army has institutionalised racism in the RoC as they are systematically racist against GCs. This is the biggest problem of institutional racism in the RoC. Once this problem is solved, we'll get on to all the other alleged instances of institutional racism. After all, it is as clear as daylight that enforcing immigration laws is clear evidence of institutional racism.

[MR-from-NG]

Will institutional racism ever end in the RoC?

Perhaps when the turkish army leaves.

Wishful thinking! I am afraid this one you will have to do all by yourselves.

Racism will end in the RoC when the bears stop shitting in the woods.

[YFred]

Will institutional racism ever end in the RoC?

Perhaps when the turkish army leaves.

Wishful thinking! I am afraid this one you will have to do all by yourselves.

Racism will end in the RoC when the bears stop shitting in the woods.

Is there bears in the woods in Cyprus?

As I suspect there may not be, then conditions are right to stop racism. If only it was as easy as that. Racism is within humanity, it's like cancer and grows from within and it's not that easy to get rid of, I am afraid.

[paliometoxo]

THE TURKISH ARE SO STUPID!!! THIS LADY IS BEING TAKEN TO PRISON FOR USING THE WORD KURDISTAN!!! NWO THERE IS A WORRENT OUT FOR HER ARREST JUST FOR SAYING A WORD... BACKWARD TURKS AND THEN U GO MENTION ROC???? HAHAHAHA FIRST LOOK AT THE TURKS THEN TALK

[ahristos]

go to www.globalsecurity.org/military/wold/war/cyprus1.htm
new constitution and workible and representative
needs the united cyprus under one flag all non cypriots powers must go away from island this gonnabe the final solution of island this is the moste workible system