par cyprus mail
| publié le 3 octobre 2007 |
Asylum seekers take to roof again
EIGHT asylum seekers who had threatened to throw themselves off the roof of Nicosia’s Central Prisons earlier this month again made it to the top of the building in an ongoing protest over their detention yesterday.
The seven Iranians and one Afghan, who are being held at a police immigrant detention centre, said that the government has failed to honour its word after promising to come back to them with a solution within 15 days.
The asylum seekers said that the minister Christos Patsalides’ silence after the promised deadline made them "feel that nobody cares about us and our families".
Earlier this month the eight managed to gain access to the water tank on the facility’s roof, where they protested over the illegality and length of time they have been kept in custody. The authorities managed to get the men to call off their protest with promises to re-examine their files.
Two other Iranian detainees being held in Limassol, yesterday started a hunger strike over the issue.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php ?id=35020&cat_id=1
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007
Protesting asylum seekers say government failed to honour its word
EIGHT Iranian asylum seekers who had threatened to throw themselves off the roof of Nicosia’s Central Prisons earlier this month said yesterday they were disappointed with the government’s failure to honour its word.
"We are the people in Block 10 [a police detention centre used to hold immigrants pending their deportation] who went on strike on September 11. Our action was not meant to blackmail the government of Cyprus but was a reaction to our condition and a call for a solution to it," the eight said in a letter addressed to Interior Minister Christos Patsalides.
One of them contacted the Cyprus Mail yesterday and said they had only come down off the roof after the minister promised to come back to them within 15 days with a solution to their problem. The ombudswoman had also made the same commitment, he said.
"It has been 20 days and we still have heard nothing," he said.
The Iranians said they were "hopeless here and cannot find any other way to express our situation".
The asylum seekers said that the minister’s silence after the promised 15-day deadline made them "feel that nobody cares about us and our families".
Their letter said : "We are still expecting for your just decision regarding our cases. We are not criminals but people who face severe problems in our countries of origin and that is the reason we are in Block 10 for such a long time, not being able to be deported."
Earlier this month the eight managed to gain access to the water tank on the facility’s roof, where they protested over the illegality and length of time they have been kept in custody. The authorities managed get the men to call off their protest with promises to re-examine their files.
At the time, Justice Minister Sophoclis Sophocleous said the government would not bow down to blackmail every time an asylum seeker was unhappy with the government’s decision to deny their application for asylum.
The Interior Minister was not yesterday available for comment.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php ?id=34968&cat_id=1
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007
