Cypriot authorities have reportedly dispatched police patrol boats beyond their territorial waters to prevent boats carrying Syrian refugees from reaching the island, about 180 kilometers (110 miles) away.

Emilia Strovolidou, a UNHCR spokeswoman in Cyprus, told The Associated Press that according to testimonies from relatives of passengers, Cypriot authorities “forcibly pushed back” the boats using “violence” and “destabilizing techniques.”

Strovolidou said the U.N. agency was “not in a position to confirm” the accounts.

The Cypriot government says the collapse of Lebanon’s economy and uncertainty caused by the war between Israel and Hamas, as well as recent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, have led to a surge in the number of flimsy, overcrowded boats carrying migrants — nearly all of them Syrians — arriving on the island nation.

Earlier this week, a Cypriot patrol boat reportedly intercepted five boats carrying hundreds of Syrian refugees and migrants.

The boats were turned back, and the passengers were safely disembarked.

A senior Cypriot official strongly denied that any coercion was used to force the boats back to Lebanon, insisting that the Cypriot government does not engage in pushbacks and acts “in full accordance with international law.”

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the ongoing operation, dismissed the allegations that Cypriot authorities used any force as “lies.”

Strovolidou said Cyprus is also bound by international law not to return anyone to a country where they could face harm or persecution.

The UNHCR office in Lebanon said in a statement that it was aware of more than 220 people who were disembarked in northern Lebanon on Wednesday.

Of those, 110 were registered UNHCR refugees, and all were released.

Saadeddine Shatila, executive director of the Lebanon-based Cedar Center for Legal Studies, a human rights organization that monitors migration issues, said his group had information that the Lebanese army had detained and possibly deported Syrians from at least one of the returned boats who were not registered with UNHCR.

The Lebanese military has in the past occasionally deported all Syrians found on intercepted migrant boats, including registered refugees, a practice that has drawn protests from human rights groups.

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