Cyprus refugees hope courts end 17-year wait on UK base When Mustafa Shirmus saw land after days adrift aboard a ramshackle fishing trawler, he thought his treacherous journey from Syria to sanctuary in Europe was finally over. But 17 years later, he and dozens of fellow passengers remain stranded on a British military base on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, unwitting participants in an international dispute that has lasted nearly half his life. A natural sound version of an AFPTV report.