Govt denies carrying out pushbacks, after ECHR decision

The government on Wednesday denied carrying out pushbacks, arguing its migration policy is in line with EU and international law.

Its defence came a day after a damning European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) decision that found Cyprus had violated the human rights of two Syrian asylum seekers who tried to seek refuge by setting sail from a boat in Lebanon.

Authorities in Cyprus refused to allow entry or access to the asylum proceedings, and the Republic was found to have acted in an inhumane or degrading manner to the two men who filed the lawsuit.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis stressed the case concerns 2020 – passing the buck to the previous administration, which he said is currently being studied.

Asked if the government has carried out any pushbacks, Letymbiotis denied this.

“The effective management of migration by our country has been heralded multiple times by all relevant bodies,” he told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The UN has accused the government of pushbacks over its handing of a group of migrants stranded in the buffer zone since May.

Letymbiotis was asked to comment on the fact that they too are barred access to asylum proceedings, to which he said we must look at “the root cause. Why they are there.”

They have come from a country that is considered safe, he said, and “we need to look at the root causes of migration at the European level as well.”

The few dozen migrants reached the buffer zone via the north where they came to from Turkey.

A group of the buffer zone migrants have filed a lawsuit against the government citing allegations of pushbacks.