UN refugee agency urges Cyprus government to process asylum seekers pushed into a UN buffer zone

The United Nations refugee agency on Friday said government authorities in ethnically divided Cyprus have rounded up dozens of migrants and pushed them back inside a UN-controlled buffer zone that they crossed to seek asylum.

UNHCR spokeswoman Emilia Strovolidou said that as many as 99 asylum seekers were "pushed back" into the buffer zone between mid-May and August 8. Strovolidou said the agency is working to end the asylum seekers' ordeal, urging Cyprus authorities to process their claims and to establish procedures that would prevent any more migrants from being left stranded in the buffer zone.

The asylum seekers entered the European Union member country from the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and crossed the buffer zone into the south where they could file their applications with the internationally recognized government.

Of those 99 migrants, 76 people...