A pregnant Nigerian student was today released from custody in Cyprus and given temporary stay after she applied for asylum.
Ms Atanda Fatimo (21) says she fears death by stoning in her homeland for having a child out of wedlock.
Ms Fatimo, who is seven months pregnant, was arrested after she was sent back to Cyprus when she tried to enter Ireland on a forged British passport on August 17th.
|
Cyprus’s Deputy Attorney General Mr Petros Clerides said Ms Fatimo never applied to have her student permit renewed when it expired in June.
Instead, she opted to fly to Dublin from Cyprus. "She chose to go to Ireland because she was told that if her child is born there, it would get Irish citizenship and she would be allowed to stay," Mr Clerides said.
Under normal circumstances, the Nigerian would be deported from Cyprus, but the fact she might face the death penalty back home has made the Cypriot auhtorities think again.
"What government official, either a minister or the attorney general or an immigration officer, would send someone to their death?" asked Mr Clerides. "There was never any question of deporting her to Nigeria," he said.
AFP