UN refugee agency urges Cyprus government to process asylum seekers pushed into a UN buffer zone

Associated Press

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The United Nations refugee agency says government authorities in ethnically divided Cyprus have rounded up dozens of migrants and pushed them back inside a U.N.-controlled buffer zone that they crossed to seek asylum. UNHCR spokeswoman Emilia Strovolidou told the Associated Press Friday that as many as 99 asylum seekers were “pushed back” into the buffer zone in the last three months. She said the agency is working to end the asylum seekers’ ordeal while urging Cypriot authorities to process their claims. The asylum seekers entered the European Union member country from the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and crossed the buffer zone into the south to file their applications with the internationally-recognized government.