Nigerians and other foreign students mainly from Africa have been left abandoned and confused after deportation from Northern Cyprus, Parallel Facts can authoritatively report.
Recently, Northern Cyprus commenced raids in public and houses to arrest and deport predominantly foreign students of African origin, as the de facto island looks to reduce the population of illegal migrants in the country, to make room for investors in the island, according to sources.
Northern Cyprus is only recognised by Türkiye, so all flights need to come from the Middle East country.
In recent months, massive crackdowns have been taking place all over the de facto country mainly targeting students, of which some are still considered missing by friends and family after their arrest due to the lack of transparency and rule of law from Northern Cyprus authorities.
Some students, Parallel Facts gathered, have been in lockdown for over 3 months without due process or when their deportation will be finalised.
Those who were deported were not informed by Northern Cyprus authorities that their flight ticket only takes them to Türkiye, many of them are left stranded as authorities in Türkiye threaten to send them to prison if they cannot afford to purchase flight tickets back to their country, according to one of the students currently held in Türkiye.
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One of the students who carved anonymity spoke to Parallel Facts saying; “We were deported, when we got to Istanbul, we were held without reason, there are over 500 of us here, some with kids.
“Our phones were confiscated and some people cannot reach their family to tell them about their whereabouts. Some of us wanted to pay for our flight back from Northern Cyprus to our home country, but the authorities didn’t allow us, only to dump us in Istanbul without telling us what awaited us”.
Rumors have begun to spread among foreign students as many are still not sure or aware of where their friends are after deportation from Northern Cyprus.
The students who were able to reach out to family briefly before their phones were confiscated again, told their families to buy flight tickets and send confirmation to an unknown number (Perhaps Turkish immigration before they can be deported).
Families with kids born in Northern Cyprus were also told to provide passports for their children or face consequences.
So far, no efforts have been made by embassies of these nationals, including Nigeria to repatriate the students whose only crime was running out of money to renew their visa in Northern Cyprus.
More deportations are expected to come as Northern Cyprus continues its crackdown on foreign students in the country.
All attempts to reach other deportees proved futile, as their mobile phones were confiscated upon arrival in Türkiye.
Parallel Facts was able to speak to one of the family members of the deportees who confirmed that they had to run around to buy flight tickets for their family member.
“They are being held at a CID facility close to Istanbul, they are only allowed one call a week and that’s how we can reach them, they were told that the UN bought tickets for them but Turkish authorities still required us to buy our flight ticket. It costs us so much to buy flight tickets in such a short period given the festive period, what about families that cannot afford to pay for the flight ticket?” The source disclosed.