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Nearly 30 asylum seekers are stuck in the United Nations-controlled buffer zone between the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus and the internationally recognized south amid a crackdown by the Cypriot authorities on undocumented migration following a steep uptick in Syrians arriving from Lebanon.

The groups 13 people from Syria and 14 from elsewhere in the Middle East, plus Africa and Asia are in different locations in the buffer zone, which extends about 112 miles across Cyprus, a Mediterranean nation that is a member of the European Union, and bisects the capital, Nicosia. They arrived in the area, known as the Green Line, on foot from the occupied north.

If the migrants return to the north, an area that covers about a third of the island and is recognized only by Turkey, they face deportation, because the administration there has no legal infrastructure for providing asylum. Crossing into the buffer zone from the occupied north would also constitute a crime of trespassing under that administration and would be likely to lead to their deportation.

President Nikos Christodoulides of Cyprus said last week that the authorities there would provide migrants currently in the buffer zone with humanitarian aid but would not permit them to enter the south for fear of setting a precedent. We will not allow the creation of a new route for illegal migration, he told reporters last Tuesday.

As a member of the European Union, Cyprus is responsible for regulating entry into the bloc, and Konstantinos Letymbiotis, a government spokesman, said last month that the country would continue its effective supervision along the length of the buffer zone.

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Seeking Safety in Cyprus, They're Stuck in Island's U.N. Buffer Zone - The New York Times