Cyprus ‘could be the target for more refugees’
THREE refugee-laden boats were intercepted off Cyprus this week, and more could reach waters off the TRNC as some two million people flee embattled Idlib in Syria, a leading lawyer and human rights advocate warned yesterday.
Legal adviser to the United Nationals High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Fezile Osum said: “People forced to flee their war-torn homeland come to our island because of its geographical location and despite its lack of rights for refugees.
“They have no other choice than to try to enter the nearest refuge,
which is often Cyprus. However, as winter approaches, boat travel is more difficult due to harsh weather conditions, although we have seen boats reach our shores in October and even November.
“We hope a 2015 amendment to immigration laws, which recognises the human rights of refugees and which was presented to the government by the Refugee Rights Association in collaboration with the UNHCR, will not again be suspended. We hope it will be approved by parliamentary committee so that the difficulties of those who seek shelter in the TRNC will be minimised.
“The alternative is that they will again be deported to their country of origin or live here illegally in very bad conditions, with no access to health facilities or education.”
Mr Osum spoke after three boats carrying refugees were intercepted as they approached the island this week, two in the sea off Zafer Burnu, at the tip of the Karpaz peninsula, and one off South Cyprus shores.
At around 9pm on Monday, a boat was spotted by a military helicopter as it approached Zafer Burnu. The captain was found to be a TRNC citizen who was transporting 13 Syrian refugees but as the vessel was just outside TRNC territorial waters, all were handed over to the Turkish coastguard.
On Tuesday, another boat carrying some 14 Syrian refugees was detected by TRNC security forces and taken to Gazimağusa port, where the passengers underwent medical checks which showed they were in good health. Again, however, as the boat had been on the edge of TRNC territorial waters when discovered, the refugees were handed over to Turkish authorities.
In South Cyprus, it was reported that a small speedboat carrying 18 refugees, including four women and three children, approached a beach at Sotira, west of Ayia Napa, where it was intercepted by police and civil defence personnel on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, four men, two of them Syrian, have been arrested in Mersin, Turkey, in connection with the death of 19 people who drowned when a boat carrying some 150 refugees sank off the TRNC coast in July. As previously reported by Cyprus Today, 102 of those on board were rescued but around 15 have never been found.