Syrian family of four arrested in north after leaving Republic

A Syrian family of four left the Republic to the north in the early hours of Sunday morning, crossing the Green Line illegally near the Ledra Palace hotel in Nicosia before being arrested in the north.

The family consists of a 27-year-old man, an 18-year-old woman who is eight months pregnant, and two children, aged four and one.

They all entered the buffer zone at around 1am on Sunday.

The two adults appeared in court in north Nicosia on Sunday, while the two children were taken care of by the social services department.

Police officer Murat Ergun told the court the family’s route into the north “would be examined”. The reasons for the family’s decision to travel to the north were not discussed.

Judge Zehra Yalkut Bilgec ordered that the man be remanded in custody for three days, and that the woman be held at a student dormitory for the same period of time.

Meanwhile, an hour after the family of four had illegally crossed the buffer zone into the north, another Syrian national did the same.

The man handed himself in to the Turkish Cypriot police on Sunday, saying he had crossed from the Republic at an “undetermined point” in Nicosia.

He also appeared in court on Sunday and was handed a three-day remand.