In the beginning of May, two more boats were forced back to Syria by the Cypriot authorities. These forceful returns must be stopped immediately. No cooperation with the New Syrian government – Syria is not safe!
On the evening of 9 May, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in distress in the Eastern Mediterranean carrying 22 people, mostly women and children. The group had departed the night before from Tartus, Syria, heading toward Cyprus. By dawn, their families lost contact with them. At 23:30 CEST, we alerted responsible authorities in Cyprus, Lebanon and Turkey. Shortly afterward, we called JRCC Larnaca, who confirmed they had received our alert email and would begin an investigation. At 00:46, JRCC Larnaca informed us that they were “investigating” and asked us to call again the following day.
Concerned by the lack of updates throughout the night, we published a Tweet about the case. Around 11 CEST, we learnt from relatives that the people had been returned back to Syria by Cypriot coast guards. Yet, when we tried to get information, JRCC Larnaca pretended that they were still investigating, refusing to share information about their involvement in the forced return.
On the same day, on 10 May, the Alarm Phone was once again contacted by relatives about another boat in distress. This boat had also departed from Tartus, Syria heading towards Cyprus in an attempt to escape. At 13:47 CEST, we sent the first alert to Cypriot Coast Guards. Shortly after, at 13:56, we managed to speak briefly with the people on board. They told us that water was entering the boat and that they were in urgent need of assistance. We then received the GPS position of the distress, confirming the people were in Cypriot SAR Zone: Lat N 034 Deg 048’032.653″ Lon E 035 Deg 017’021.463″ at 14:22 CEST. Communication with the boat was bad and we soon lost direct contact. According to the families, who were sometimes able to establish contact with them, there were 37 people on board the rubber boat, including 8 children. The boat was in very poor condition and some of the children had fainted. Around 14:30 CEST, we updated the alert email to authorities with the boat’s latest location and called JRCC Larnaca. Once again, they told us that they would “investigate”. Throughout the evening, we kept updating the authorities with the last positions received from the relatives, showing that the boat was moving slowly. And we forwarded the alert to the Lebanese Navy as well.
At 21:17 CEST, JRCC Larnaca told us on the phone that they were dispatching a vessel to the location. Relieved by this response, we shared an update via a Tweet about the situation at 22:50 CEST. At 00:29, however, the Cypriot Coast Guards told us they were “still investigating”, which raised concern and fear of another forced return in the making. And in fact, this is exactly what happened: On 11 May at 12:31 CEST, JRCC Larnaca informed us by phone that the group (actually 28 people) were brought back to Syria. When we requested further details, the officer on the phone told us the following:
“We are happy to tell you that we collaborated with Syrian authorities and the people are all back safe and well in Tartus Syria.”
At 13:58, we tweeted about the forced return to Syria.
We are shocked and outraged by the ongoing cooperation between Cyprus and the new powerholders in Syria. These recent incidents point to a growing and systematic cooperation between the two governments. Already in March we documented how Cypriot authorities pushed people back into the open sea, forcing them to return to Syria. Moreover, UNHCR expressed concerns about the forced returns. In May 2025, the Cypriot government publicly confirmed this cooperation, referring to a “bilateral search and rescue agreement” between the two states. They even acknowledged that the boats were intercepted within the Cyprus’ Search and Rescue zone, before being handed over to Syrian authorities.
This ‘rescue language’ is nothing more than a smokescreen. These are not rescue operations. They are illegal pushbacks. It is clear that these forced returns violate international law and place people’s lives at tremendous risk. We say it again: anyone who risks such a dangerous crossing has a compelling reason for doing so. We need freedom of movement and safe passage. We are deeply disturbed by this collaboration between Cyprus and the new Syrian authorities and denounce this system of forced return. For people escaping Syria, Syria is not safe. We call for an end of this forceful practice. We demand safe passage and freedom of movement, so that all those who need to leave a place can do so safely and with dignity.
