Tripoli-based Lebanese lawyer Muhammad Sabluh, who has for years been providing legal support to Syrian migrants, reports that hundreds of people of mainly Syrian origins have been intercepted by Cypriot authorities and sent back to Lebanon in recent weeks.

Tripoli is a northern port in Lebanon, which has been suffering from the worst economic crisis in its history.

According to Sabluh and Lebanese media, it is difficult to get precise numbers of people still trapped in the sea between Cyprus and the Lebanese coasts. "But there are certainly many," the Lebanese daily L'Orient-Le Jour reported.

Cypriot media have reported five boats with 500 migrants, while the NGO Alarm Phone has said that the Cypriot authorities refuse to launch rescue operations.

Alleged use of force

Since 12 April, many migrants have reportedly been blocked in the territorial waters of Cyprus without food, water, or petrol. Some have also reported being threatened with firearms by Cypriot police, who allegedly told them to return to Syria, according to Lebanese media.

Earlier last week, Cypriot patrol boats reportedly intercepted five boats carrying hundreds of Syrian refugees and migrants. The boats turned back and the passengers disembarked safely, reported AP. UNHCR Lebanon confirmed in a statement that it was aware of more than 220 people who had disembarked from the returned boats in northern Lebanon last Wednesday. Of those, 110 were refugees registered with UNHCR and all of them were released, UNHCR said.

The UN agency on Friday said that Cypriot authorities's efforts to stop migrant boats mustn't contravene international human rights laws or put passengers at risk.

A Cypriot senior official speaking on condition of anonymity denied that any type of force was being applied, deeming the allegations as "lies". He said the Cypriot government doesn't engage in any pushbacks and acts "fully in accordance with international law," AP reported.

Testimony of Syrian trapped at sea

L'Orient-Le Jour interviewed the brother of one of the Syrian migrants that departed from Lebanon and is now at sea. Bassem -- a pseudonym -- said that his brother Ziad, a technician who has lived for over ten years in Lebanon, was pushed to try to flee after suffering a racist attack north of Beirut.

"However, the dream of a safe exile vanished a few miles off the Cypriot coast," the newspaper reported. "They arrived in the territorial waters, but the [Cypriot] Coast Guards detained them for two days before giving them what was needed to go back" towards Lebanon, Bassem said.

The lawyer Sabluh said that one of the three vessels that arrived in Lebanon from Cyprus had been confiscated by the army, "with the risk that passengers will now be deported to Syria."

Many, Bassem said, are wanted by the government in Damascus.

'Cruel game' between Lebanon and Cyprus, says Alarm Phone

The Alarm Phone NGO has expressed concern over what will happen to those that have not returned to Lebanon, saying that some are afraid of dying of hunger.

"It is a violation of the Refugees Convention and puts people's lives at risk," the NGO said, decrying the "cruel game" being played by Lebanon and Cyprus.

Meanwhile, the Cypriot authorities have suspended the processing of asylum requests by Syrians.

"If we had known, my brother would never have left," Bassem said.

A recent Memorandum of Understanding between Cyprus and Lebanon aims to limit departures and facilitate returns, while the island seeks to garner additional support for its initiative for the EU to formally redesignate some areas in Syria as "safe zones". According to the Cypriot official this would not imply that migrants coming from those areas would be deported back, but that they would lose any allowances, benefits and the right to work, according to AP.