Meeting on airport impersonation incidents - Over 230 in 9 months

The increase in incidents of impersonation and presentation of fake documents, during passport controls at the airports of Cyprus, was the subject of a meeting held in the previous days, at the Police Headquarters, led by the Deputy Chief of Police, Mr. Dimitris Dimitriou.

Almost every day, during the passport controls carried out at the airports of Cyprus, persons are detected who attempt to travel, mainly to Central European countries, either with forged travel documents or with genuine documents that do not belong to them.

Since the beginning of this year, more than 230 such incidents have been identified. The specially trained members of the Aliens and Immigration Service, who staff the passport control points, with the help of the special equipment they have, carry out the necessary checks for the authenticity of travel documents, as well as for any offenses related to impersonation.

Specifically, more than 90 cases concerned foreigners who attempted to travel with forged travel documents and more than 140 concerned impersonation cases, where foreigners attempted to travel with genuine travel documents, which however did not belong to them.

It should be noted that, in the year 2021, the Police handled more than 110 cases involving the presentation of false travel documents and more than 150 cases of impersonation.

Furthermore, the Police, through the Aliens and Immigration Service, from the beginning of the year until today, proceeded to investigate more than 50 cases involving smugglers of illegal immigrants and to arrest more than 80 persons. In the year 2021, about 30 cases were investigated resulting in 50 arrests.

Moreover, from the beginning of the year until 30/09/2022, more than 5,260 persons were deported from Cyprus or voluntarily returned to their countries, of which 650 were in police custody.

In the meeting attended by members from various competent Services and Police Departments, the evolution of this phenomenon in our country was discussed, among other things, as well as the taking of further measures to deal with it.