Cyprus turns away 200 migrants fleeing Lebanon in early September

Cypriot coast guard turned away more than 200 migrants fleeing Lebanon in the first week of September, Human Rights Watch reported Tuesday.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), people fled Lebanon on 18 boats between Aug. 29 and Sept. 14, with five of them intercepted by the Lebanese naval forces while in Lebanese territorial waters.

In the first eight-and-a-half months of 2020, Cypriot authorities found 779 people on boats seeking entry to Cyprus, according to numbers tallied by Cypriot NGO, KISA.

Migrants reported being threatened by Greek and Turkish Cypriot coast guards and being pushed back without being given the opportunity to lodge asylum claims. Greek Cypriot coast guard vessels “circled them at high speeds, swamping their boats, and in at least one case abandoning them at sea without fuel and food,” HRW reported.

In recent weeks, dozens of Lebanese and Syrians have tried to make the perilous sea journey from Lebanon to the neighbouring island of Cyprus, located 160 kilometres away.

Four bodies were retrieved after they had attempted to flee the country by sea on an overloaded boat earlier this week. United Nations peacekeepers rescued a boat on Sept. 14 that had been at sea for days, with one of the 37 passengers on board the boat deceased.

Lebanon is grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades, exacerbated by coronavirus lockdown measures and the Aug. 4 Beirut Port explosion which killed more than 190 people.

According to the Economy Ministry’s estimates, poverty rates are expected to rise to 60 percent by the end of the year. Many do not have an income and cannot afford to feed their families.

“That Lebanese nationals are now joining Syrian refugees on boats to flee Lebanon and seek asylum ... is a mark of the severity of the crisis facing that country,” Bill Frelick, refugee and migrant rights director at HRW, was quoted as saying.

“Cyprus should consider their claims for protection fully and fairly and treat them safely and with dignity instead of disregarding the obligations to rescue boats in distress and not to engage in collective expulsions,” he said.

SOURCE: Al-Bawaba

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