"It is shameful that asylum seekers fleeing persecution arriving on UK territory have not been treated in accordance with the refugee convention," Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) charity legal director Chai Patel told The Guardian. "Instead they have been left in awful limbo while being unlawfully threatened with deportation back to the persecution they fled."
Patel argued officials were "coercing" refugees to move to Cyprus, which he claimed was "paid by the UK to temporarily house them and process their claims."
Leigh Day legal firm’s Tessa Gregory claimed there was a "clear breach" of British obligations toward the refugees.
"Since their arrival on British soil, the UK government has denied responsibility for the group and sought to outsource its obligations under international law to Cyprus," Gregory said.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has placed responsibility for the 114 asylum seekers on London, citing a 2003 UK-Cypriot Memorandum of Understanding that covers direct arrivals to the SBA.
The newspaper says a group of 67 mostly Kurdish and Iraqi refugees who arrived in the British base in 1998 remain on one of the SBAs in Cyprus in legal limbo.
