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Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris has slammed a report about him calling the shots to hinder sea rescues of refugees, accusing a journalist of pushing an “extremely dangerous” open doors agenda while the local newspaper is hitting back with a little-known “embarrassing” incident.
Daily Politis published on Sunday a story calling Nouris “superminister” for his role in holding back sea rescues of refugees and undocumented migrants, with the author alleging that the minister is micromanaging operations while other officials from other ministries have to wait on his instructions before saving lives at sea.
Politis’ Katerina Eliadi penned a damning report on Sunday with a second part published on Monday, saying Nouris is known as “the superminister” within various state agencies and departments due to “instructions he appears to be giving on sea rescues that often cross the line even bordering torture.”
According to Eliadi, who did not name sources in her month-long investigation, Nouris is known to be very active in micromanaging sea rescue operations where he would be the one to okay any scrambling of search and rescuers to the area or even have a say on which people may be taken off a boat.
'The interior minister insists that after a boat is intercepted, people should be left at sea for some days, thus putting pressure on them to go back where they came from'
Coast guard officials who approach a refugee vessel after it is picked up by radar end up waiting at sea until decisions are made and instructions are given, according to Politis.
“The interior minister insists that after a boat is intercepted, people should be left at sea for some days, thus putting pressure on them to go back where they came from,” Eliadi wrote citing professionals in the field including high ranking officials.
She also cited a recent example where a boat almost 10 meters long had reached Cypriot waters carrying over 100 persons, half of them babies or young children.
“It takes them 12 maybe 18 hours to make the journey until they approach the Cypriot coast, maybe a whole day because their speed is very low. They are sitting with their legs crossed, one on top of the other like sardines, without a cover. Sometimes they are sitting in water when the boat is leaking,” Eliadi wrote.
“You can imagine where we end up going when nature calls. If it’s summer the men get in the water, otherwise inside the fishing boat, while babies go right there,” a migrant said according to Eliadi.
She went on to say that officials try to reason with Nouris and point out this tactic serves no purpose.
“We explain to him every time that this tactic does not offer anything, people don’t turn back just because we made things difficult for them, and this didn’t stop others from coming just because we torment them,” Eliadi reported on a source.
Nouris accuses journalist of pushing agenda
But the interior minister issued a statement on Sunday slamming the report and accusing the author of pushing lies and failing to back up “unethical characterizations” against him including words such as “torture” and “monster.”
“The monster that the journalist fails to mention is right across from us, pushing systematically and daily hundreds of irregular migrants and changing the faces of our villages,” an interior ministry statement said.
Nouris has routinely accused Turkey of pushing economic migrants to the Republic of Cyprus, through the northern part of the divided island and then the UN buffer zone into the south.
But Eliadi, who acknowledged the migration issue was complicated, posed the question of what would happen if one of these old boats ended up sinking.
There are usually two people on coast guard inflatable that intercepts and keeps an eye on the boat, according to the story.
“The question is who and how are they going to rescue if the boat capsizes?” Eliadi wrote, citing concerns over unclear and non-specific protocols while adding a similar event did happen in September but there were only a few people on board who were rescued.
"Stand by for instructions"
Eliadi also reported that when coast guard officials call headquarters overnight for backups in many cases, they need to “persuade” their colleagues on land that they are not exaggerating the situation.
The Search and Rescue Center must be called in when there is immediate danger, according to protocols cited by Eliadi, who instead said they often hear back “stand by for instructions.”
According to Eliadi, the interior minister interferes with operations of the Search and Rescue Center which is under the Defense Ministry.
“He gets in our business without knowledge of the subject. He wants to have direct communication and give instructions, which are many times about which baby can leave a boat and which one cannot,” according to a description in the report.
Journalist responds with little-known "embarassing" incident
The interior ministry rejected the allegations, saying Nouris is neither superminister nor does he overstep his authority.
“As the top administrator of immigration in the Republic, based on law of the land, he is tasked with overseeing all state departments for migration purposes and asylum,” the interior ministry statement said.
Based on the statement, Nouris is the person “in charge of managing a problem that if left unchecked could have disastrous consequences on our country.”
But on Monday’s report, Eliadi alleged that Cypriot coast officials tried to fool Lebanese authorities in a recent pushback, an act of pushing back refugees based on a controversial agreement between Nicosia and Beirut.
Eliadi claimed that a small flotilla from the Republic of Cyprus, essentially four boats carrying refugees and undocumented migrants to Lebanon, attempted to return more people than originally arrived to the island.
“They failed to inform Lebanese authorities that they would be handing over some who came from Syria as well,” the report wrote, adding that the agreement was only for those who came from Lebanon.
Eliadi wrote that the Lebanese officials got wind of what had happened and before the boat could depart “they told them to load everyone back into the boat and bring them back to Cyprus.”
“Two [Greek Cypriot] officers were ordered to stand guard with their batons and allow no one to come aboard,” she wrote, adding that Lebanese soldiers appeared on the scene and everyone was brought back to the island in what was a “pushback embarrassment.
According to a diplomatic source, Cypriot-Lebanese relations have not been at their best after this incident,” Eliadi wrote.
