The United Nations refugee agency said on Friday it was “extremely concerned” over the return of more than 100 Syrian nationals from Cyprus to Lebanon without being screened to determine whether they need legal protection and who may be deported back to their war-wracked homeland.
The UNHCR office in Cyprus said deportations and transfers between states “without legal and procedural safeguards for persons who may be in need of international protection” are against international and European law.
Such transfers could result in people sent back to a country where “they may face the risk of persecution, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and other irreparable harm,” the agency told the Associated Press. The 109 migrants had all reached Cyprus aboard three separate boats between July 29-August 2 before being returned by boat under Cyprus police escort.
The Cyprus government said such returns are being lawfully carried out in line with a bilateral agreement the island nation and neighbouring Lebanon signed in 2004. According to senior Interior Ministry official Loizos Hadjivasiliou, the agreement obligates Lebanon to prevent and stop illegal border crossings and illegal migration of individuals who depart from Lebanon. Hadjivasiliou told the Associated Press these individuals are returned to Lebanon, which is deemed safe and where they enjoy benefits afforded to the hundreds of thousands of refugees in the country. “Under these circumstances, we believe that they don’t face any danger and their choice to set sail toward a European Union member country is being made for clearly economic reasons.” Lebanon hosts some 805,000 UN-registered Syrian refugees, but officials estimate the actual number is far higher, ranging between 1.5 and 2 million. An increasing number of would-be migrants – both refugees and Lebanese – have attempted to leave Lebanon by sea since the country fell into a crippling economic crisis over the past four years. About 90 per cent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon live below the extreme poverty line, according to UNHCR.
Hadjivasiliou said in line with the bilateral agreement, Cypriot authorities don’t process migrants’ asylum claims because their arrival is “clearly a matter of illegal trespass.”
