Trafficking suspect arrested in Germany, extradited to Cyprus

A 24-year-old man wanted by police in Cyprus for human trafficking was extradited from Germany on Wednesday following his arrest there by German authorities.

The man, against whom a European arrest warrant was issued, is also suspected of arranging fake marriages, forgery and false representation. All alleged crimes were committed in Cyprus in 2019.

The operation was carried out in cooperation with Interpol.

Germany authorities approved Cyprus’ request for his extradition and the 24-year-old was immediately boarded on a plane headed to Larnaca airport accompanied by members of the anti-trafficking police unit. He was taken into custody upon arrival.

The suspect will appear in court on Thursday and a remand is expected to be issued against him, which will give police the time to investigate the case thoroughly.

Along with the 24-year-old man, a 34-year-old man, allegedly an accomplice, was also arrested in Cyprus on Wednesday by the anti-trafficking unit.

The news of the arrest comes a day after Cyprus was upgraded to tier one status in the US’ annual human trafficking report.

In its assessment of the government’s improvements, the July 2022 report emphasised that traffickers were convicted for the first time in three years.

It further highlighted that additional social workers were hired and arrangements were made for foreign national victims to return to Cyprus to testify, among others.

The lack of convictions was one of the main reasons why Cyprus was previously downgraded, an issue which the justice ministry acknowledged and said it worked very hard to address.

However – the latest report said more must be done to prevent lenient sentences from being handed down, pointing to judges having sentenced four traffickers with only a three-year suspended sentence and one trafficker with a fine of €14,950.