Cyprus and the United Nations company for refugees on Thursday clashed over allegations that the east Mediterranean island nation continues to interact in so-called pushbacks in opposition to boats loaded with migrants departing from neighboring Syria or Lebanon.
The conflict, which unfolded on the state broadcaster Thursday, got here a couple of days after Cypriot authorities recovered two survivors and 7 our bodies in worldwide waters off Cyprus after their boat apparently sank in tough seas.
Emilia Strovolidou, spokeswoman for the U.N. Excessive Fee for Refugees, informed the state broadcaster that Cypriot police intercepted three boatloads of migrants inside Cypriot territorial waters on between March 13-14 however prevented them from disembarking at Larnaca port, making them flip again to Syria from the place they departed.
Cypriot Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis vociferously disputed Strovolidou’s claims, saying Cypriot patrol vessels intercepted two – not three – boats close to Lebanon’s territorial waters inside Cyprus’ search and rescue space of accountability.
He stated Cypriot authorities requested Lebanon’s help – in keeping with a bilateral settlement – to show the boats again to the Lebanese coast from the place they set sail.
Hartsiotis insisted Cyprus doesn’t have interaction in pushbacks and abides by its worldwide authorized obligations, including {that a} “critical group” such because the UNHCR “should substantiate its claims.” He stated any related info ought to be forwarded to Cypriot police for a correct investigation.
Protection Minister Vasilis Palmas additionally stated the UNCHR’s claims “don’t stand.”
“We’ve each proper to guard our borders together with these at sea,” Hartsiotis stated. Cyprus’ get-tough strategy to irregular migrant arrivals noticed a precipitous drop in such arrivals over the past two years. In 2024, migrant arrivals dropped 64% relative to 2022, whereas the share of migrant departures elevated from 43% in 2022 to 179% in 2024.
The Related Press requested the UNHCR to account for the discrepancies within the two variations. In a written assertion, the company supplied no extra particulars however insisted that the “people on board had been denied entry to Cyprus and are actually again in Syria from the place they’d fled.”
“The worldwide authorized precept of non-refoulement prohibits all states … from partaking in conduct that dangers sending folks again – straight or not directly – to a spot the place they’d be vulnerable to persecution or critical human rights violations,” the assertion stated.
The Cyprus authorities’s declare that it doesn’t have interaction in pushbacks relies by itself definition of what constitutes a pushback. Hartsiotis stated a key component to a pushback is using violence, saying Cypriot authorities don’t resort to such techniques.
Europe’s high human rights court docket dominated final October that Cyprus violated the suitable of two Syrian nationals to hunt asylum within the island nation after retaining them, and greater than two dozen different folks, aboard a ship at sea for 2 days earlier than sending them again to Lebanon.
The row adopted Monday’s rescue of two males some 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of Cyprus the place a ship they had been passengers on sank in tough seas.
Officers stated the boat was believed to be carrying no less than 20 Syrian males between the ages of 25-30. An ongoing search of the realm has turned up nothing extra.
The sinking sparked media hypothesis over Cypriot authorities’ alleged inaction, particularly after it was discovered that the non-governmental group Alarm Cellphone had warned authorities a day earlier of a migrant boat in misery someplace off Cyprus’ southern coast.
This prompted an indignant response wherein authorities officers acknowledged that air and sea belongings had been dispatched in a search effort overlaying an space of 1,000 nautical miles with none outcomes.
In a joint assertion, the ministers of justice, protection and migration stated there’s nothing to this point to recommend that the Alarm Cellphone warning involved the sunken boat on which the 2 rescued males had been aboard.
“It’s unacceptable for the Cyprus Republic to face accused of violating human rights,” the ministers stated. “the Cyprus Republic has by no means ignored an enchantment for assist or a message regarding a search and rescue operation and takes all vital actions in keeping with the legislation.”