Migrants in Cyprus routinely beaten, abused, and insulted – Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called on the EU to hold Cyprus accountable for its treatment of migrants, as it documented cases of beatings, pushbacks and excessive force as migrants and asylum seekers were tied up with body restraints using zip-ties.

In a 90-page report, the NGO said Lebanese Armed Forces and Cypriot authorities work together to keep asylum seekers from reaching Europe, then deport them to danger in Syria where they face torture and even death.

Human Rights Watch said interviewees described “a myriad of abuses throughout the cycle of pull and pushbacks and expulsions. Both Lebanese and Cypriot authorities used excessive force at the time of arrest and during detention, including beatings, body restraints and verbal insults,” said the report titled ‘I Can’t Go Home, Stay Here, or Leave’: Pushbacks and Pullbacks of Syrian Refugees from Cyprus and Lebanon.’

The report said Cyprus’ pushbacks are collective expulsions prohibited under the European Convention on Human Rights, and violate the prohibition on indirect, chain or secondary refoulement.

“Interviewees who had been detained and expelled by Cypriot authorities also described Cypriot officers beating them, including in one case with the use of a baton and a taser.”

It details a routine practice of boats reaching Cyprus’ shores from Lebanon, and Cypriot authorities ignoring pleas for asylum and instead returning Syrian refugees back to Lebanon.

This “blatantly disregards the well-documented risks of ill-treatment and onward expulsion which Syrians face at the hands of Lebanese authorities.”

The report said Cypriot authorities detained individuals in uncovered spaces where they had to sleep on the ground, in some cases for up to two nights.

“Individuals were routinely zip-tied during transit irrespective of whether restraints were necessary. In one case where Cypriot Coast Guards detained a boat at sea for a day, Syrian refugees on board were not provided food.”

Testimony from a 44-year-old Syrian woman who reached Cyprus’ shores by boat from Lebanon in July 2023 says how her group was taken by bus to a port where they saw a vessel and were told they would be sent back to Syria, sparking fear and panic amongst the migrants.

“The officers started grabbing us and shoving us off the bus. They hit [my son] on his nose and broke it. They grabbed my scarf and my hair and dragged me down from the bus. So, my husband jumped in and said, ‘Why are you hitting my wife?’.”

Her testimony said police officers began to hit her husband in retaliation.

“[They] started to hit him everywhere. The blood came from his nose and mouth, everywhere. They used a taser and baton on him. The woman officer then came on the bus [to take] my daughters [onto the boat] and even took off their hijabs. They were very violent. Two of the officers were hitting my daughter. The officers then put zip-ties on our wrists and ankles. And even on the young kids as well.”

Interviewees whose boats managed to reach Cypriot waters described Cypriot Coast Guard vessels using “dangerous manoeuvring tactics to intercept the boats.”

Cyprus’ coastguard has been criticised in the report

According to the report, Cyprus’ coast guard also intercepted one boat and then left it to drift overnight without offering the people onboard food or other assistance.

According to the UNHCR there were 38 attempted movements by sea involving 1,570 individuals in 2021, from Lebanon to Cyprus.

In 2022 there were 55 attempts involving 4,629 individuals; in 2023, 65 attempts involving 3,921 individuals; and in 2024 as of July, 61 attempts all aiming to reach Cyprus, involving 2,541 individuals.

Human Rights watch interviewed 16 Syrian refugees who had tried to leave Lebanon irregularly by boat between August 2021 and September 2023. The NGO said it also reviewed and verified photographs and videos sent directly from interviewees, accessed aircraft and boat tracking data to corroborate interviewee accounts, and submitted freedom of information requests to obtain European Union funding documents.

Human Rights Watch documented cases of people sent back between August 2021 and September 2023, but Lebanon confirmed to Human Rights Watch that it expelled Cyprus-returned Syrians in April 2024, and publicly announced new pullbacks in August 2024.

Lebanon hosts the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, including 1.5 million Syrian refugees, while experiencing multiple compounding crises that have brought about dire socioeconomic conditions for everyone living there, the report said.

At the same time, Cyprus has become the most common destination for irregular boats departing from Lebanon.

“Cyprus has responded with collective expulsions and pushbacks of boat arrivals. In September 2020, Human Rights Watch documented Cyprus’ summary push back or expulsion of more than 200 migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers coming from Lebanon.

The report called on Cyprus to immediately resume the asylum processing for all Syrians currently in Cyprus and “immediately halt all pushbacks and collective expulsions.”

In April this year, Cyprus’ government announced all asylum seeker applications from Syrian nationals will be suspended “in light of [recent] mass arrivals.”

The suspension will last for 21 months, during which Syrian nationals are housed at the Kofinou reception centre. The government hopes that in that timeframe, parts of Syria may be designated safe and Cyprus will be able to return individuals back to Syria. 

Human Rights Watch urged the EU and other member states to “hold Cyprus accountable for human rights violations against migrants and asylum seekers.”

It called on them to state no parts of Syria are safe and “call on the Cypriot government to urgently end to collective expulsions at its borders and to individual deportations without adequate protections and due process.”

In a June 13, 2024 letter to Human Rights Watch, Cyprus’ Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said: “The unforeseen and unprecedented increase of arrivals led the Government of Cyprus to [adopt] strategic measures, necessary for the effective management of migration flows … Cyprus authorities put every effort in order to provide assistance to those in need and to facilitate people who express their will to apply for international protection, regardless of country of origin.

In May, the EU offered Lebanon a financial package of €1 billion which includes efforts to tackle border control and smuggling.