UK must resettle refugees who

arrived on Cyprus military base, says

UN
Refugee agency contradicts MoD claims that 114 asylum seekers who
arrived to British base after being abandoned by people smugglers are
not UK responsibility

Ref
ugees arriving at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, after being abandoned in fishing boats offshore. They were described
as very well dressed and without any health concerns. Photograph: SAC Laura Wing/Ministry of Defence

Matthew Weaver, Julian Borger, Mark Tran andHelena Smith in Athens

Wednesday 21 October 2015

The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, has said that the UK is legally obliged
to resettle more than a hundred Syrian refugees who arrived by boat at a
British military base in Cyprus, contradicting claims from the Ministry of
Defence (MoD) that they were a Cypriot responsibility.

Two overloaded wooden boats carrying 114 refugees from Syria, including
28 children, have been transferred to a temporary reception area in the
sovereign base at Akrotiri on the southern coast of the Mediterranean
island. According to the Cypriot coastguard, the refugees were abandoned
offshore by people smugglers and left to fend for themselves.
The arrival on British territory of asylum seekers fleeing the Syrian conflict
intensifies the scrutiny on the UKs response to Europes worst refugee
crisis since the second world war. David Cameron has offered to take in
20,000 Syrian refugees over five years significantly less than most other
western European countries, though the government has pointed out it
gives more aid for refugee camps along Syrias borders.
Reacting to the arrivals at Akrotiri, the MoD said: At the moment our key
priority is ensuring everybody on board is safe and well. We have had an
agreement in place with the Republic of Cyprus since 2003 to ensure that
the Cypriot authorities take responsibility in circumstances like this.
Asked whether the refugees would be able to claim asylum in Britain, an
MoD official said: Thats not our understanding. A spokeswoman for the
Home Office also stated: The resettlement of refugees landing on the
southern bases in Cyprus is not the responsibility of the United Kingdom.
But the UNHCR said in a statement that the 2003 UK-Cyprus memorandum
made it clear that asylum seekers arriving directly on to the SBA
[Sovereign Base Area] are the responsibility of the UK but they would be
granted access to services in the republic at the cost of the SBA.
The UNHCR said it had not been able to visit the refugees because they
were on a military base, but that high-level talks were under way between
British and Cypriot officials and that the agency had offered to mediate.
The 2003 agreement states: The United Kingdom, through the SBAA [SBA
administration], will endeavour to resettle persons recognised as refugees
or granted any other form of international protection in countries willing to
accept those persons, and not later than one year after the decision
granting the relevant status has been taken.

However, 67 refugees from earlier arrivals beginning in 1998 are still in

legal limbo, living on a British base in Cyprus having been denied asylum in
the UK.
Kyriacos Mavri, the commander of the Cyprus coastguard, told the Guardian
that the refugees who arrived at Akrotiri in the early hours of Wednesday
had been left to fend for themselves in two fishing boats after travelling
from Turkey.
The people who were trafficking them abandoned them in ... fishing boats
about one or two miles from the beach just outside the SBA. They left in a
fast boat, he said. We were told they were all from Syria. There were 67
men, 19 women and 28 children. Many of them had iPhones with them and
they were very well dressed. Everybody was OK, they didnt have any
health concerns.
George Kiteos, a police spokesman at the base, which has been used to
launch airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq, said: They arrived on the
coast in the bit of the base that is closed off, were brought to shore and are
currently in the process of being identified and screened, he told the
Guardian. What happens to them next is up to the politicians to decide.
According to Cypriot sources, the fact that Akrotiri is being used in the air
campaign against Isis will affect how the refugees are treated, as they could
be seen as a security risk. Insiders, who did not want to be named, said
accommodation in the bases military zone could be found to house the
refugees if necessary.
A Cypriot government official said cooperation on the matter would be
dictated by the memorandum of understanding between the Republic of
Cyprus and the British-run bases. We are ready to help if requested for
the moment all the individuals are under the control of the bases. We have
no involvement whatsoever, said Olivia Michalidou, a spokeswoman for the
islands civil defence department.
An MoD spokesman said it was unclear where the refugees had travelled
from, but a police official told local media that they appeared to have
come from Syria.

The base is one of two sovereign territories retained by Britain on Cyprus, a

colony until 1960. Britain started using Akrotiri to bomb Isis targets in
northern Iraq in September 2014.
Cyprus has received hundreds of refugees from Syria, but this is the first
time any had arrived at the Akrotiri base, which is about 150 miles from the
Syrian port of Tartus.
The news site inCyprus said two small boats had been spotted off the coast
of Akrotiri at about 6.30am and were shepherded back to the shore by the
Cyprus coastguard.
The MoD said: Events like this underline why it is important for us to
develop a comprehensive approach to the migration crisis, working with our
international partners to provide humanitarian assistance in Syria and
neighbouring countries, to disrupt the trafficking gangs and to address the
root causes of instability that cause people to seek a new life elsewhere.
Posted by Thavam