Egypt hinders UN access to Eritrean asylum seekers

Thu Jun 19, 2008 9:53am EDT

(Adds UNHCR access hindered; dead Ghanaian; previous ISMAILIA)

By Cynthia Johnston

CAIRO, June 19 (Reuters) - Egypt has obstructed the U.N. refugee agency's access to hundreds of detained Eritrean asylum seekers who are at risk of deportation and could face torture if they are returned to Asmara, UNHCR said on Thursday.

The move came as Egypt continues secretive large-scale deportations of Eritrean asylum seekers despite objections by UNHCR, with at least 810 feared deported since June 11 and hundreds more at risk, according to Amnesty International.

The deportations are the largest forced returns of asylum seekers from Egypt in decades, and could mark a shift in Egypt's policy toward tens of thousands of largely African migrants on its territory, activists say.

"The U.N. refugee agency is very alarmed over consistent reports of ongoing forcible returns of Eritrean asylum seekers from Egypt," a UNHCR statement said, appealing to Egypt for information on the location and condition of 1,400 Eritreans.

Egypt, facing international pressure over the deportations, agreed on Sunday to let UNHCR visit detained Eritreans for the first time since February. U.N. teams saw 140 in southern Egypt, before being blocked from seeing hundreds more elsewhere.

"In some instances they were asked to bring specific permission from prison authorities while at other locations they were informed that Eritrean asylum seekers were no longer present," UNHCR said.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry could not be reached for comment. Under international law, states must not send home asylum seekers with a well-founded fear of persecution if they return.

Egypt's attitude toward the Eritrean migrants soured after it came under pressure in recent months to staunch the flow of Africans over its Sinai border into Israel.

Security sources said Egypt suspected the detained Eritreans of planning to slip across the sensitive frontier.



MORE DEPORTATIONS, BORDER VIOLENCE

Security sources said preparations were under way for more deportations on Thursday, and that 32 Eritreans caught trying to sneak into Israel in recent months had been sent from the coastal town of el-Arish to Cairo to be flown home.

An additional 59 Eritreans being held in central Egypt were sent to Hurghada on the Red Sea coast for deportation, the sources said. UNHCR said more were reported to have been sent to Cairo on Wednesday, but there was no word on their fate.

In fresh violence against migrants at the Israel border on Thursday, Egyptian police shot dead an African man as he tried to slip across the frontier, bringing to 14 the number of migrants killed at the border this year, security sources said.

The dead migrant was thought to be an African in his 30s, but could not be further identified. A majority of the migrants killed at the border this year have been from Eritrea or Ivory Coast, along with three Sudanese and a Nigerian.

Security forces also found the body of a Ghanaian man on a Sinai road, thought to have been left by smugglers after he died en route to the border. There was no word on cause of death.

Amnesty International says thousands of migrants try to cross into Israel from Egypt each year, with numbers rising since 2007. Eritreans arriving in Egypt in recent months include Pentecostal Christians fleeing religious persecution and others trying to avoid military conscription, activists say. (Additional reporting by Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia; Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Charles Dick)



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