Cyprus seeks probe into ‘student visas’ issued by Turkish-Cypriot ‘universities’
The Republic of Cyprus has requested an investigation by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) into allegations that universities in the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus have been facilitating migrant smuggling into the European Union.
According to the Interior Ministry in Nicosia, the European body has already started looking into the claims that at least 188 undocumented migrants had been able to pass the buffer zone into EU member-state the Republic of Cyprus using illegal student visas issued by such institutions.
Upon entering the Republic of Cyprus, they reportedly applied for asylum, the English Edition of Kathimerini Cyprus reported on Tuesday.
The ministry said that the issue came to the attention of the Cypriot authorities after a pattern emerged among dozens of arrivals of third-country nationals through the buffer zone dividing the island. Subsequent investigations found evidence to suggest that at least 188 of those arrivals were not bona fide students.
