in-cyprus 4 September 2024
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Cyprus and Lebanon of forcing refugees to return to Syria.
The organisation claims that these two countries are “working together” to prevent Syrian refugees from reaching Europe and forcibly returning them to war-torn Syria.
“The Lebanese Armed Forces and Cypriot authorities work together to keep refugees from reaching Europe, then deport them to danger in Syria,” HRW stated in a press release.
According to HRW, the Lebanese army intercepted boats carrying Syrians attempting to reach Europe and then “summarily expelled them to Syria.”
“In tandem,” the organisation says, Cypriot forces “have sent Syrians whose boats reached Cyprus back to Lebanon, without regard to their refugee status.”
Many of these individuals were then “immediately expelled to Syria by the Lebanese army,” HRW adds.
In May, the EU announced a one-billion-euro aid package, primarily to support Lebanon in combating irregular migration to Europe from its shores.
“Lebanon violates the fundamental prohibition on returning a refugee to face persecution, while the European Union helps pay the bills,” said Nadia Hardman, HRW’s migration expert.
“Cyprus also violates this prohibition by pushing refugees back to Lebanon where they risk being sent to danger in Syria,” she added.
The U.N. human rights office stated earlier this year that based on evidence it has gathered, Syrian refugees who fled the ongoing Syrian civil war are facing gross human rights violations such as torture and abduction on their return to Syria, while women are subject to sexual harassment and violence.
Nicosia has been lobbying the European Union to declare parts of Syria as safe for repatriation.
HRW goes on to report that Cypriot Interior Minister Konstantinos Ioannou told the organisation that “in 2020, Cyprus and Lebanon re-endorsed their mutual agreement on managing cases of third-country nationals who attempt to cross the sea from Lebanon and enter Cyprus illegally. […] when boats were intercepted and sent back to Lebanon for further management, in respect of our agreement.”
Lebanon’s General Security informed HRW that any “return or deportation” of Syrians or other migrants from Cyprus, in which they were involved, “complied with international human rights standards.”
HRW clarifies that the Lebanese army did not respond to their requests. When contacted by the French Press Agency, the Lebanese army declined to comment.
Cyprus has taken measures to manage what its government has called a migration crisis, as the country records among the highest rates of registered first-time applicants for asylum in Europe.
Among the policies the Republic of Cyprus has implemented is temporarily suspending asylum applications from Syrian nationals.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in June accused Cypriot authorities of pushing back people to the buffer zone after they entered the Pournara reception centre to apply for asylum.
It is noted that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, states that everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries. Furthermore, the 1951 UN Refugee Convention (and its 1967 Protocol), protects refugees from being returned to countries where they risk being persecuted.
