Nearly 30 asylum seekers are stuck in the United Nations-controlled buffer zone between the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus and the internationally recognized south amid a crackdown by the Cypriot authorities on undocumented migration following a steep uptick in Syrians arriving from Lebanon.
The groups — 13 people from Syria and 14 from elsewhere in the Middle East, plus Africa and Asia — are in different locations in the buffer zone, which extends about 112 miles across Cyprus, a Mediterranean nation that is a member of the European Union, and bisects the capital, Nicosia.
They arrived in the area, known as the Green Line, on foot from the occupied north.
If the migrants return to the north, an area that covers about a third of the island and is recognized only by Turkey, they face deportation, because the administration there has no legal infrastructure for providing asylum.
Crossing into the buffer zone from the occupied north would also constitute a crime of trespassing under that administration and would be likely to lead to their deportation.
Organizations:
United Nations, Cypriot, European Union
Locations:
Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Africa, Asia, Nicosia, Turkey