Remands for three people with stolen IDs

Three day remands were issued on Monday for three people suspected of illegally entering and staying in the country, and identity fraud.

The first, a 22-year-old African man was arrested for identity fraud at Paphos airport as he tried to board a flight to France using a French ID card that was not his.

At passport control it was determined that while the travel document was authentic, it did not belong to the suspect, who did not match the photograph and was 20 centimetres shorter than the stated height.

After his arrest, the suspect admitted that the ID card was not his and that he came from an African country.

Officials were able to track the man’s data in the asylum request system, finding that his request is still pending.

The second arrest was of a 25-year-old Congolese woman who arrived at Larnaca airport on Saturday afternoon using Belgian travel documents that did not belong to her.

During questioning the woman said that she travelled to the north through Turkey, then passed to government-controlled areas without filing an asylum request.

According to the police, her data was not available in the migration department’s system.

The third suspect, a 27-year-old Congolese man, was arrested at Paphos airport on Saturday while attempting to board a flight to France using French travel documents.

Passport control determined he was not the owner of the ID card, which he later admitted to buying along with a driver’s license in the north.

The suspect gave police his real name and age, saying that he passed to government-controlled areas from the north on Tuesday.

Officials were also unable to find his data in the migration department’s system.