Migration is a problem with humanitarian dimensions. Families have been uprooted from their homeland, with women and children – mainly – paying for armed conflicts in the Middle East, behind which great power games are hidden.
But that is one side. There is also the unseen side. And this is exactly what «F» highlights today with evidence. We bring to light the content of the secret uniform list of suspicious foreign persons of the Cypriot security authorities.
Fighters in Syria
This is a list of hundreds of people who have sought refuge on our island in recent years, seeking asylum in the Republic of Cyprus. Only, as it turns out, these individuals have a special history. Some of them came to our island with false documents and in many cases bear obvious signs of injuries resulting from armed conflicts. Others go back and forth between Cyprus and the Middle East. There are also many who are associated with organizations that have been internationally designated as terrorist and have demonstrated their extreme activity in Syria by beheadings of prisoners.
Islamic State, Al Nusra, and other militias appear on the long list after several foreigners in Cyprus allegedly supported them. Many of them are members of social media groups promoting extreme religious and political positions.
Through the data we quote, it seems that oversimplifications do not fit when it comes to the refugee issue, but neither do generalizations. The attitudes and actions we experienced from all sides on the occasion of the events in Chloraka and Limassol, as well as the levelling approaches, have no place in the analysis of this complex problem.
Mechanism
The list, details of which we reveal today, is in the hands of all services of the Republic dealing with the security and handling of issues of foreign persons. It has been prepared and is regularly updated on the basis of a mechanism that has been established in recent years and in which services/departments of the Republic participate. The Cyprus Information Service, the Asylum Service, Police units such as the Aliens and Immigration Service (YAM), the Information Management and Analysis Service (YDAP) and the Office for Combating Terrorism have set up a network and exchange information. These are recorded, evaluated and, finally, utilized. In addition, data of foreign persons are checked in international databases, such as that of Interpol, from which data are drawn. Furthermore, the residence addresses of these foreigners, who reside in various areas of the Republic, are checked to determine whether they are valid. Several of these suspects are summoned for questioning by the provincial Crime Detection Departments. This long list includes informative and precise details about who each one is, while, depending on its risk, each case has a specific colour (red, orange, green). Cases of suspected foreigners began to be added en masse to the long list since 2020. Since then, the list has been getting longer. Indicatively, we note that in 2022 there were data for more than 450 persons. In the following lines we list typical cases.
«In 24 hours the Turks»
Suspected foreigners on many occasions have expressed pro-Turkish sentiments. Typical is the case of a foreigner of Arab origin, who is in his fourth decade of age. In a post on social media, as mentioned in the list, «he praises the action of a Chechen terrorist who beheaded a professor in France, while characterizing the terrorist as a victim and the professor as a terrorist. All those who support Macron and his racist followers will pay the price, because Islam and its prophet are a red line and anyone who crosses it will be beheaded. Furthermore, in his posts, he seems to call on the President of the Republic of Cyprus to remain uninvolved, not to provoke Erdogan, as the Turks can occupy the island in 24 hours.
This person, following a coordinated operation at the end of 2020, was arrested at his home and detained on the basis of detention and deportation orders.
He was sending cars to Syria
A man of Arab origin permanently residing in the Republic was active in Syria. Initially, reports said he supported the Al Nusra group. It later emerged that he «visited Syria several times since the start of the war and has transported cars from Cyprus there.» It should be noted here that Islamist forces in Syria converted a large number of agricultural vehicles they imported, placing machine guns in the gel. In addition, a relative of his at the same time was detained in the Detention Center of Prohibited Immigrants on the basis of information that he had joined ISIS. In addition, an audit by the Unit for Combating Cover-Up Offences revealed that amounts with a large deviation from his declared annual income were being transferred to bank accounts under his control. In one case, a person who was related in the first degree to him, went to a bank branch «presenting the amount of €50,000 in €100 notes» and asking for them to be converted into banknotes of different denominations.
«Beheading a soldier»
Another foreigner, who sought refuge in Cyprus, reportedly «is a former fighter of the ISIS organization, while on his mobile phone there is a video of him beheading a soldier of the Assad regime.» The migrant in question has been investigated since 2015 with the services of the Republic dealing with his case and concluding that «he is not a fanatical Islamist».
‘Arms supply’
The list records the case of a foreigner who mediated to obtain weapons from a terrorist organization. The confidential memo states, among other things: «Information received … the person in question was a financial member of the terrorist organisation Jabhat Fatah Al Sham (formerly Al Nusra) and mediated the supply of arms and ammunition’. It is added that in the shop he maintains, he has formed a special room in which extreme elements for prayer are gathered. Security authorities of the Republic had checked his premises, and then he was taken to the offices of the ICF of Pafos for questioning.
FBI-informed arrest
Even the US Federal Police, the FBI, gave information about a foreigner. It is characteristically noted: «… He was arrested on the basis of a judicial arrest warrant, as part of a coordinated operation, carried out by … in collaboration with …, on …, in the village … The conduct of the operation was based on information received from the FBI Liaison Officer, according to which a Facebook account, in the name of …, with a specific Cypriot IP Address, may be associated with a terrorist organization.
In the Republic with passports issued by the ISIS organization
Through the investigation of the whole issue, it is documented that many foreigners use passports that appear to be genuine, however, they have been issued by an unauthorized authority. These are the «Q Passports». They were printed by Syrian State Printing Houses during the period when they were occupied by the terrorist organization ISIS.
The single list of suspected aliens shall indicate for a specific person: ‘Syrian holder of subsidiary protection. He holds a Syrian passport, the number of which is among the fake Syrian passports found in Germany. That is, they are genuine passports, which were issued by a non-competent authority. Under questioning, he claimed that his father sent him from Syria because his had expired. {…} He has a Turkish residence permit in his name which expires on …».
The issue of «Q Passports» had been of concern to the Cyprus Police years ago. In an internal note that we have secured and was sent in 2019, a competent officer of the Police Force, informed about the situation and recorded the difficulties presented by the whole issue: «{…} In the year 2018, during the passport control of persons for entry into the Republic, Syrian passports were presented, which are part of a batch of passports with numbers … , printed by Syrian state printing presses, which were seized by the terrorist organization ISIS and issued to members of the organization as legitimate. These passports are genuine as paper and according to the German authorities are called ‘Q Passports’. Part of this batch was found in the possession of Syrian migrants, who applied for asylum at the German Embassy in Turkey and Germany. Following instructions from the Law Office of the Republic, we requested and received information from other European countries on how to handle ‘Q Passports’. Fifteen (15) of the twenty-two (22) countries that responded do not accept these passports, while the remaining seven (7), United Kingdom, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Finland, accept them.
Christos Andreou spoke about a protocol of actions and the establishment of a special team
The Cyprus Police sends the message that the whole matter is being closely monitored. This follows from relevant answers to a series of questions raised by ‘F’. The spokesperson of the Police Force, Christos Andreou, asked to comment on the suspected foreigners, stated, inter alia, that «based on the provisions of the Protocol of Actions prepared in 2019, specific procedures are followed, so that co-competent services of the State are informed and take their own actions to reveal their possible involvement in illegal activities». In relation to the assessment of suspected foreigners on terrorism issues, he said that «in December 2019, a ‘Terrorist Suspected Aliens Assessment Team’ was established, consisting of representatives of the Police services, chaired by the Assistant Chief of Crime Prevention and Combating Crime, which convenes at regular intervals and evaluates the available information before it. for cases of persons identified with suspicious indications and employed by the involved Services on terrorism issues. A list of details of suspicious persons discussed and evaluated by the reported team has been drawn up and each case shall be classified accordingly, e.g. persons with (1) serious indications, (2) moderate indications and (3) reduced indications, depending on the information and data provided by each service on each suspect.»
INFORMATION THAT THEY ARE INVOLVED IN TERRORISM
Several appear on the list to be suspected of terrorism in the intelligence base. Here are typical reports for various people:
>> «{…} «He travels to Syria in order to transfer money in support of the terrorist organization ISIS {…} together with his brother …, who reside in Cyprus, seem to travel from time to time to Syria through the occupied territories in order to take part in the conflicts.
>> «In checks carried out by Europol GOs, it was found that he received a phone call. Call his mobile phone. from Turkish tel. a number entered in Europol databases as a number related to terrorism issues’.
>>> «{…} While residing in Cyprus, he went to Syria to fight with the Free Syrian Army and/or al Nusra Front, and then ended up with Ahrar al Sham. He also maintains a Facebook account on which several posts have been found, including a photo of him holding a Free Syrian Army flag.
>>> «In response from Europol’s SOC – OPERATIONAL CENTRE {…} it is reported that according to information from US authorities, the reported person may be involved in terrorist financing.»
>>> «Information about an ISIS member involved in human executions during the war in Syria and possessing video footage of the executions on his mobile phone.»
>>> «A check on his mobile phone revealed HITS for 31 phone numbers/contacts in Europol databases, for terrorism, 10 numbers for organised crime, 1 number for Europol Information System and 9 numbers were found registered in restricted databases.»
RETURNS AND DEPORTATIONS TO SYRIA
The deportation to Syria of such persons with a shadowy past is anything but simple. The European Union has considered Syria an «unsafe country» since the civil war broke out in 2011. In recent public statements on the issue of migrant returns and deportations in general, the Minister of Interior, Constantinos Ioannou, referred to the facts, as well as the efforts made by the Republic to reverse the situation. «We consider as Cyprus and find fertile ground with other member states that the status of Syria must be reassessed,» he said. Elsewhere in his remarks, he said that there are already two areas recognized by the EU Agency for Asylum (EUAA) that are safe. «So it must now be recognized at the level of the European Union,» so that those we judge can deport or return people back to Syria, «something that at the moment no country has achieved.»
From the data of our investigation, however, there is no doubt that efforts are being made by competent services to monitor these persons from the first moment they enter the Republic. In addition to databases and regular checks, a Suspicious Persons Assessment Team has been set up, while a competent state agency makes a detailed report every three months on terrorism, reviewing the data.