Content_paragraphs:  Several incidents of pushback of boats were noted between December 2020 and 
  
  May 2021. In particular, a boat carrying 38 Syrians, assumed to have departed from 
  
  Lebanon, had reportedly been initially pushed back in December 2020. The boat was 
  
  subsequently allowed to dock after the passengers claimed to have sailed from the 
  
  Syrian Arab Republic. On 8 January 2021, a boat carrying 26 Syrians was reportedly 
  
  pushed back by Cyprus coast guards. The boat was presumed to have sailed from 
  
  __________________ 
  
   5  See, for example, the sixteenth report on the implementation of Council Regulation (EC) 
  
  No 866/2004 and the situation resulting from its application covering the period 1 January until 
  
  31 December 2019, available at www.eumonitor.eu/9353000/1/j9vvik7m1c3gyxp/vl9mkeuq4gx5.  
  
  http://www.eumonitor.eu/9353000/1/j9vvik7m1c3gyxp/vl9mkeuq4gx5
  
  
   
  S/2021/635 
  
   
  
  9/16 21-08696 
  
   
  
  Turkey. On 17 May, a boat carrying 63 Syrian nationals, including 23 children and 16 
  
  women, was pushed back to Lebanon without allowing the passengers gain access to 
  
  asylum procedures, even though they had expressed clearly their wish to seek asylum. 
  
  According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 
  
  (UNHCR), some of those asylum seekers continue to remain detained in Lebanon and 
  
  are subject to deportation to the Syrian Arab Republic, which would be a violation of 
  
  the principle of non-refoulement.