At first glance, when hearing about the death of the infant, the parents are guilty.
They lived in deplorable conditions; the child was not properly nourished, and even its nappies weren’t changed, resulting in its body wasting away.
When the death revealed the conditions of its three-month life, the local community was shocked and cursed the parents. The father was arrested, while the mother—who was not illegally in Cyprus—managed to escape.
The father is 23 years old, from Pakistan, and entered Cyprus illegally. As an illegal immigrant, he lived in the shadows. He worked sporadically and illegally, cohabiting with others who could legally rent a house, barely able to support himself.
However, even illegal immigrants fall in love, need companionship, and fulfil human functions, including sex, which sometimes leads to pregnancy.
His partner might also have been someone who, for whatever reason, moved in the shadows. Under these circumstances, how could one get an abortion, give birth, register the child’s birth, or seek help?
Thus, the child was condemned to death. It would have been a miracle if it had survived.
The other house residents minded their own business, unable to intervene for fear of getting into trouble; you never know what might happen if the authorities raid a place where people with various backgrounds live together.
When it was too late, the father did what he feared most. He stepped out of the shadows and called for help. And he was arrested, no longer as an illegal, but as a murderer.
Could the child’s death have been avoided? Perhaps yes.
Its arrival into the world was clearly not a conscious choice, nor could the people who brought it into the world take responsibility for raising it.
Within the framework they were condemned to operate in, they couldn’t even ensure the child’s survival.
If the father hadn’t feared deportation, perhaps the child’s birth would have been registered, and state services might have intervened to help.
Maybe the other house residents would have sounded the alarm while there was still hope. The father will be tried for causing death “due to reckless, imprudent, or dangerous acts and child endangerment and neglect of a family head’s duty.”
But can an illegal immigrant, someone living as an unwanted person in a country, trying to remain unseen, behave like a family head?
Perhaps the parents aren’t the only ones to blame for the infant’s death and the condemnation of other children to live in the shadows.