Limbo in Cyprus

Translated by Andrea Solazzo

For more than three weeks, a group of asylum seekers has been stranded in the UN-controlled “buffer zone” between the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, occupied by Turkey in 1974 and not internationally recognised, and Southern Cyprus, whose government categorically refuses to let in any person who wishes to apply for refugee status. The conditions in which these refugees find themselves are deteriorating and this may lead to a humanitarian crisis.

The context

There are 31 people stranded in this zone called the “green line”, 13 of them from Syria, and the others from countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Cameroon and Somalia; around half are women with children. They are not concentrated in one place but can be found all over the 180 km long buffer zone. They started from Lebanon and arrived in the northern part of Cyprus, from where they travelled to the southern part, hoping to be received by the European Union. The situation became tense when the government of Southern Cyprus decided not to allow people without documents to cross the border and apply for asylum, effectively blocking these people at the border. If migrants returned to North Cyprus, they would risk deportation: the state has no institution on its territory to deal with asylum seekers and it is considered a crime to cross the border irregularly. In addition, Northern Cyprus refuses to follow UN regulations: since no UN state, apart from Turkey, does not recognise it internationally, it does not feel it has an obligation to follow UN guidelines.

UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, is helping in the Green Line area, but has no competence to proceed with asylum applications. The situation of the refugees is becoming increasingly complex, also due to the rising of temperatures caused by the arrival of the summer season. Tents and food have been provided, but hygienic conditions are poor and the heat, which exceeds 40°, further endangers the health of the migrants. The UN peacekeepers stationed on the island (UNFICYP) have asked South Cyprus to offer asylum to the refugees. The European Commission has also commented on this, according to European legislation, that every person has the right to request international protection from a member state, even if they are at the border or in a transit zone. The Cypriot government, however, continues to refuse. President Nikos Christodoulides stated that humanitarian aid is being brought into the buffer zone, but that there is no intention to let people through as they do not want to set a precedent that could lead to a new migration route. Moreover, he added that migrants could seek asylum in Turkey. However, although Turkey is considered a safe country by the EU, many human rights violations against asylum seekers have been documented over the years.

Cyrpus's migration route and EU policies

President Christodoulides' firm decision is due to the previous migratory flows to the island: in fact, a centre-right government has been installed in Cyprus for a few months now, which is trying to block the migratory routes involving the country. Due to its strategic location close to Lebanon and Turkey, the island is one of the EU's largest receiving countries. In the last few years, the number of migrants arriving in South Cyprus has been increasing. In 2019, Cyprus was the European country that received more migrants than its population. Only in 2024, 2140 people arrived, about 0.2% of the population (in Italy, on the other hand, the 16,000 who arrived this year make up 0.03% of the population). Therefore, since April 2024, the government has decided to suspend the asylum applications of refugees arriving from Syria. This means that people are accommodated in two reception centres where they receive food and limited opportunities to leave. If they choose to leave, they lose all help. Asylum seekers make up about 7% of the population and the country has the highest per capita quota of refugees of all European states.

The government has asked the EU more than once to intervene and Lebanon to try to stop the departures. In response, European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen announced in Beirut in early May that the EU would offer Lebanon a billion-euro aid package to control the migration route from Syria and, in practice, to stop departures to Cyprus and the EU. This is part of the migration externalisation policies that the EU is continuing to adopt as a solution for managing migration flows. As in this case, this involves agreements with third states that will be responsible for limiting the arrival of refugees at Europe's borders. These states must be considered safe by the EU. This means that the country must prove that there is no danger of persecution or conflict situations and that it has a democratic system. However, these choices often depend on political strategies and not on a real assessment: countries considered safe do not always respect migrants’ rights, who become victims of violence and abuse. For example, the Cypriot president has repeatedly asked the European Union to recognise as a safe country certain regions of Syria where the conflict has subsided, even though civil war continues to rage in the country. Syrians are forced to seek refuge elsewhere: the route to Lebanon to reach Cyprus and the EU is one of the fastest, even if the island's government is proving increasingly intransigent.