NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The UN refugee agency said Friday that Cypriot efforts at sea to stop numerous Syrian refugee-laden boats departing Lebanon from reaching the European Union-member island nation must comply with international human rights laws and not endanger passengers. Cypriot authorities have reportedly dispatched police patrol vessels just outside Lebanese territorial waters to prevent boat loads of refugees from reaching the island about 110 miles (180 kilometers) away. The Cypriot government says the deteriorating Lebanese economy along with the uncertainty caused by the Israeli-Hamas war and recent clashes between Israel and Hamas has led to many rickety boats overloaded with migrants — almost all Syrians — reaching the island. Earlier this week, Cypriot patrol craft reportedly intercepted five boats carrying hundreds of Syrian refugees and migrants. The boats turned back and the passengers disembarked safely.

UNHCR spokesperson in Cyprus Emilia Strovolidou told The Associated Press that according to relatives of passengers, Cypriot authorities “forcibly turned back” the boats using “violence” and “techniques to destabilize the boat.” Strovolidou said the U.N. agency was “not in a position to confirm” those accounts. A Cypriot senior official strongly denied that any coercion was used in any way to get the boats to return to Lebanon, insisting that the Cypriot government does not engage in any pushbacks and acts “fully in accordance with international law.”

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they cannot disclose details of ongoing operations, dismissed as “lies” allegations that Cypriot authorities resorted to using any type of force. Strovolidou said Cyprus is also bound by international law not to return individuals to any country which could in turn deport them to their homeland where they could be at risk of harm or persecution.

The Lebanon office of UNHCR said in a statement that it was aware of more than 220 people who had disembarked from the returned boats in northern Lebanon on Wednesday. Of those, 110 were refugees registered with UNHCR and all of them were released, it said. Saadeddine Shatila, executive director of the Cedar Center for Legal Studies, a Lebanon-based human rights organization that tracks migration issues, said his group had information that the Lebanese army had detained and possibly deported Syrians from at least one of the returning boats who weren’t registered with UNCHR.

The Lebanese army has in the past occasionally deported all Syrians aboard seized migrant boats, including registered refugees, a practice that drew an outcry from human rights organizations. Lebanese political officials have been calling for years for the international community to either resettle the refugees in other countries or assist in returning them to Syria, and security forces have stepped up deportations of Syrians over the past year. Some of the deportees have reportedly faced detention and torture upon their return.