Egypt deports 600 Eritreans
Published on Saturday 21st June 2008Egypt: Egypt has expelled 600 Eritrean asylum seekers in a week, and will probably expel 600 more as the UN urges Cairo to stop the deportations.
"Six hundred asylum seekers have been sent back to Eritrea this week and 600 others are about to be expelled," Mustafa Abul Hassan, of the Hisham Mubarak Center human rights association, told AFP.
"We have told the Egyptian government that if they are expelled to Eritrea, they risk being arrested or tortured," said Abul Hassan, who heads the center's Aswan office in southern Egypt.
An Egyptian security official speaking on condition of anonymity said that 400 Eritreans were expelled on Wednesday while 200 others were sent back to their country overnight June 11 and that some 600 others will be expelled "soon."
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has expressed alarm at the massive expulsions and urged Egypt to stop deporting asylum seekers from Eritrea, saying they could face great risks in their home country.
"People who could well be at risk in their home country should never be sent back before their asylum claims have been properly addressed," Arbour said in a statement released earlier in Geneva.
The forced deportations have sparked local and international condemnation.
Eighteen Egyptian non-governmental organizations sent a letter to Interior Minister Habib el-Adli on Thursday to express their opposition to massive expulsions of Eritrean asylum seekers and call for an immediate stop to it.
Last week Amnesty International said most asylum seekers returned to Eritrea "are likely to be arbitrarily detained incommunicado in inhumane conditions from weeks to years."