Greek Cypriot police have arrested foreign nationals, who have the TRNC entry stamp on their travel documents, while trying to cross over to the South at the Ledra Palace checkpoint and have taken them to court.

Up until now, Greek Cypriot police have sent back foreigners with the TRNC entry stamp on their travel documents back to the TRNC. However, this new procedure indicates that the Greek Cypriot Administration has changed its strategy on this issue.

The Greek Cypriot daily ‘Fileleftheros’ in its issue on October 19, 2003 reported that a Pakistani couple and their two children, who wanted to cross over to the South, were arrested at the Ledra Palace checkpoint and later imprisoned by Greek Cypriot police.

The daily stated that, because the family in question, who had entered the TRNC on November 10, 2000, had a TRNC entry stamp in their passports, they were detained for the night (October 19) and appeared before a Greek Cypriot court yesterday (21 October) morning.

It also reported that four foreign students from Eastern Mediterranean University, who only wanted to visit the South for an hour, were arrested at Ledra Palace on October 19. One of the students was a 19 year old girl from Kazakistan and the others were from Iran, aged 17, 20 and 21.