UN refugee agency accuses Cyprus government of pushing asylum seekers into a UN buffer zone

NICOSIA, Cyprus — The United Nations refugee agency on Friday accused government authorities of ethnically divisive Cyprus of rounding up dozens of migrants and forcing them back to a UN-controlled buffer zone they crossed to seek asylum.

UNHCR spokeswoman Emilia Strovolidou said as many as 99 asylum seekers were “pushed back” to the buffer zone between mid-May and August 8.

The asylum seekers entered the European Union member state of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and crossed the buffer zone to the south, where they could submit their applications to the internationally recognized government.

Of the 99 migrants, 76 people from countries including Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sudan, Iraq and Gaza remain stranded in two locations within the buffer zone, west and east of the capital Nicosia. Among them are 18 minors, six of whom are unaccompanied.

Strovolidou said that while the UN has provided asylum seekers with military-style food rations, tents, blankets, toilets and washing facilities, they are still exposed to extreme heat, dust and humidity.

“Their humanitarian needs are increasing and their physical and psychological condition is deteriorating because they remain in these conditions, some for almost three months,” Strovolidou told The Associated Press.

She said some of them are victims of gender-based violence and human trafficking, and suffer from serious illnesses such as cancer, asthma and severe mental health problems.

Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after supporters of union with Greece staged a coup with the support of the junta then ruling Greece. Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, but only the south enjoys full membership benefits.

Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus, urged an immediate end to the pushbacks and for the Cypriot authorities to comply with their obligations under international and EU law.

“In almost all cases, the asylum seekers ended up in government-controlled areas, where they were intercepted by Cypriot police and forcibly dumped in the buffer zone after their passports and mobile phones were confiscated,” Siddique told AP.

He said the UN has shared video evidence of the pushback operations with Cypriot authorities.

“The buffer zone is not a refugee camp,” Siddique said.

The Cypriot government has taken measures a hard border with migrant crossings along the 180-kilometre (120-mile) buffer zone, stressing that it would not allow the zone to become a gateway for illegal migration.

Deputy Migration Minister Nicholas Ioannides said earlier this week that the government does not want to get into conflict with the UN and is in talks with the UNHCR to resolve the issue.

Complicating the issue are the peculiarities of the buffer zone itself, which is not a formal border and as such. Cypriot authorities say the UN is mistaken when it talks about pushbacks specifically referring to “expulsions at recognized maritime or land borders.”

In a written statement to AP, the ministry said migrants crossing the buffer zone arrive in the north of the island from Turkey, a safe country, and then move south through remote parts of the porous buffer zone, where there are no physical barriers to prevent the crossing.

Under an established legal framework, Cypriot police and other authorities are legally empowered to exercise “effective surveillance” over the buffer zone to combat illegal migration by “discouraging people from circumventing controls” at all eight legal border crossings.

The ministry said that given the “huge migratory pressure” Cyprus is facing, the government has adopted a “principled position” to prevent the buffer zone from turning into a “route for irregular migration”, while providing humanitarian assistance to stranded migrants.

Human rights lawyer Nicoletta Charalambidou disputes the Cypriot government’s claim that it is acting in accordance with international and EU law.

On behalf of 46 stranded migrants, she has initiated legal proceedings to get the Cypriot authorities to allow them to submit asylum applications.

“The government has a duty to allow these people to apply for asylum,” she told AP, adding that asylum applications must be assessed individually to determine whether there are safety conditions in Turkey for each applicant.