The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Cyprus to compensate two Syrian refugees who were prevented from seeking asylum, in a ruling that campaigners say exposes the country’s illegal migration practices.
The Strasbourg court found that Cyprus breached the European Convention on Human Rights when authorities stopped the men from disembarking and pushed them back to Lebanon without processing their asylum claims in September 2020.
“For four years the migration policies of Cyprus have relied on human rights violations, and illegal pushbacks at land and sea”, Nicoletta Charalambidou, the human rights lawyer who represented the refugees, told The Guardian. “This ruling has exposed these illegal practices and it has set a precedent. It is a perfect win for human rights”, she added.
The refugees, two cousins, both in their early 40s from Idlib, had already spent four years in a refugee camp after fleeing Syria’s civil war. The court ruled that keeping them at sea for two days without adequate provisions constituted “degrading treatment”.
President Christodoulides said the government would examine the ruling.
The judgment comes as Cyprus faces criticism over its handling of asylum seekers. A recent report by the Border Violence Monitoring Network revealed the country has intensified surveillance technology deployment since 2020 at maritime borders and in the UN buffer zone dividing the island.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has accused Cypriot police of pushing asylum seekers into the buffer zone, where 65 people, including cancer patients and nine unaccompanied minors, are currently stranded. Some have lived in tents for six months amidst difficult conditions.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in June also accused Cypriot authorities of pushing back people to the buffer zone after they entered the Pournara reception centre to apply for asylum.
Nicholas Ioannides, Deputy Minister for Migration, maintains Cyprus is not obligated to examine asylum requests from claimants in transit zones.
Nicosia has been lobbying the European Union to declare parts of Syria as safe for repatriation and has terminated the examination of asylum applications from Syrian nationals.
However, the U.N. human rights office has stated 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.
Legal experts say the ECHR ruling could encourage more asylum seekers to take legal action.
Twenty-five cases have already been filed against Cyprus for alleged violations of international law regarding refugee rights.
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