Cypriot authorities on Wednesday reportedly pushed back five boats carrying around 500 migrants, philenews reported citing anonymous sources.
The boats started from Lebanon and were believed to have been carrying migrants from Syria.
Sources told philenews that Cypriot authorities gave blankets and food to the migrants before forcing them to turn back.
It is unclear whether the five boats will return to Lebanon or attempt to reach Cyprus again in the coming days.
According to philenews, the Lebanese authorities did not seem willing to take them back.
The boats had been detected by the Lebanese authorities about 60 nautical miles off the coast.
“These people are trapped in a cruel and dangerous game between Cyprus and Lebanon and remain at sea with no food or water and in urgent need of help,” Alarmphone, an advocacy group, wrote on X.
Missing Migrants Project, an International Organisation for Migration initiative that has recorded migrant deaths and disappearances since 2014, has found that the Mediterranean crossing continues to be the deadliest route for migrants, with at least 3,129 deaths and disappearances recorded last year.
The Cypriot operation, led by the Marine Police and the National Guard, has been shrouded in secrecy, with Minister of the Interior Konstantinos Ioannou declining to provide details. “It is an operational matter,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with a local government body in Nicosia on Wednesday.
Nicosia last weekend announced it was suspending the processing of asylum applications amid a sharp increase in the number of Syrians arriving in Cyprus from Lebanon. It wants its European Union partners to reconsider the status of Syria, now out of bounds for returns.
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.
According to the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, pushbacks entail a variety of state measures aimed at forcing refugees and migrants out of their territory while obstructing access to applicable legal and procedural frameworks.
“In doing so, States circumvent safeguards governing international protection (including minors), detention or custody, expulsion, and the use of force,” it notes.
(File photo)
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