If Katina’s skin colour was different, would she have been arrested and detained?

You are someone living an ordinary life. You rent a home, run a small restaurant where you cook and sell food, work with all the delivery platforms, receive positive reviews on TripAdvisor praising your food quality and service, pay taxes, make social insurance contributions, have friends, interests and activities. Then suddenly, overnight, you find yourself in a detention centre as an illegal immigrant awaiting deportation.

This is not happening in Trump’s America, but in hospitable Cyprus. Naturally, if your skin colour is white (the whiter the better), the chances of finding yourself in a detention centre are extremely limited. You might be deported if your residence permit has expired, but you will not be handcuffed.

Katina Baird, 32 is black. Born in Guyana, a small South American country and former British colony, she came to Cyprus in 2019 with her British husband, having previously lived together in Portugal.

Their relationship lasted eight years, but their marriage only three years minus one month. Due to alcohol abuse, her husband had become violent, as she reported, and they divorced.

She remained in Cyprus and in March 2023 opened Katina’s Tasty Food in Larnaca, a small restaurant serving Caribbean cuisine.

To be considered a legal resident, however, she would have needed to be married to a European citizen (the marriage was before Brexit) for at least three years. She had therefore initiated legal proceedings to demonstrate why her marriage ended one month before completing the three years that would have granted her residency rights.

Her case was scheduled for hearing in October. On 25 June, however, during a routine document check by VAT and Social Insurance departments, her life was turned upside down.

As she reported in a social media post, approximately 15 police officers entered her establishment, questioning her about her immigration status. She explained that legal proceedings regarding her residency were pending, but this was not taken into consideration.

They arrested her and transferred her to Paphos to a cell without allowing her to contact her lawyer. She was subsequently transferred to the Menoyia immigrant detention centre for deportation.

“I am not an illegal immigrant — I have a legal case pending,” she explained. “But none of this seems to matter. My human rights, my dignity and my business — everything — has been taken away”.

She had wished to go to Portugal where she has lived previously but the question is that: if Katina were white, would she have received this treatment?

She was later released from immigration detention on Friday after one week of detention following a public campaign and intervention by the deputy migration minister.

“Humanity in Cyprus has not been lost. Katina Baird was freed today. It was a popular demand from Larnaca society and Cyprus, and it became reality,” said her lawyer Elias Christou.

“I want to thank all the people of Larnaca for their support and the people living in my neighbourhood in Oroklini who supported me. This is my home, these are my family,” she said.

By  Chrystalla Hadjidemetriou

In-Cyprus