ECHR condemns Cyprus for returning Syria refugees to Lebanon

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has condemned Cyprus for returning two Syrian refugees who had arrived on its shores back to Lebanon, ruling that Nicosia neglected their safety and asylum rights.

According to the ECHR, the two Syrian refugees – referred to as plaintiffs M.A. and Z.R. – had fled the city of Idlib in north-west Syria for Lebanon back in 2016, before paying a smuggler in 2020 to sail them across the Mediterranean to Cyprus with dozens of other migrants.

As they entered Cypriot waters without permission by the authorities, however, their small boat was intercepted, and the refugees were returned to Lebanon where they currently remain. In their suit, the two Syrians said that they had been “tricked” by authorities into believing they would be allowed to come ashore in Cyprus but were, instead, forced to board another boat which took them back to Lebanon.

In its verdict of the case, the ECHR ruled that Cyprus had committed four violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, including by returning the pair to Lebanon “without processing their asylum claims and without all the steps required under the refugee law”, as well as by failing to conduct “any assessment of the risk of lack of access to an effective asylum process in Lebanon or the living conditions of asylum-seekers there”.

Cyprus also failed to assess the risk of “refoulement”, or the forcible return of refugees to a potentially dangerous country – such as Syria – where they may be subjected to persecution.

As a result of its verdict, the ECHR has ordered Cyprus to pay 22,000 Euros ($24,000) in damages to each of the Syrian refugees, as well as 4,700 Euros ($5,100) jointly for costs and expenses.

READ: Cyprus suspends processing Syrian asylum applications amid spike in arrivals