Limbo in a blue tent: African asylum-seekers stuck on Cyprus

Enjei Grace and fellow Cameroonian Daniel Ejube have been stuck for nearly five months in limbo, in the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone separating Cyprus' breakaway north from the internationally recognized south

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- It seems a strange place to pitch a tent.

Plump in the middle of the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that has divided Cyprus along ethnic lines since 1974, in the heart of the island's medieval capital, two Cameroonian asylum-seekers have lived in a small blue tent for nearly five months.

The breakaway Turkish Cypriot north, through which they entered hoping to reach the European Union-member, Greek Cypriot south, will deport them if they go back. And the south seems determined not to let them in — to discourage more would-be migrants from trying the same route.

To make things worse, the two can see people freely moving between north and south all the time, as their tent is beside a main authorized crossing — one of nine linking the two communities.