From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Sep 08 2008 - 07:54:20 EDT
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Photo: Tamar Dressler/IRIN <http://www.irinnews.org/photo>
<http://www.irinnews.org/PhotoDetail.aspx?ImageId=200809084>African
refugee children on their first day at a special school for refugees in
Eilot, outside Eilat in southern IsraelEILAT, 8 September 2008 (IRIN) -
Israel deported to Egypt 91 illegal African migrants in four operations
coordinated during the last two weeks of August, the State Attorney's Office
said on 1 September.
A spokesman for the Israeli military, which patrols the state's borders,
said it had returned them on government orders in line with the bilateral
agreement signed with the Egyptian government.
However, rights groups are concerned that some were not given a chance to
claim asylum in Israel.
Last year, Israel and Egypt agreed to clamp down on their porous border.
"Israel cannot allow unfettered access to its sovereign territory,"
government spokesman Mark Regev told IRIN.
Several Israeli rights groups filed a petition last week in an attempt to
halt the deportations. They said the Africans should be treated as
asylum-seekers and be interviewed to make sure they were safe to return to
Egypt.
Following the one previous use of the "hot return" policy - whereby Israel
immediately returns captured infiltrators to Egypt upon arrest - rights
groups had petitioned the court in August 2007 and received a response from
the state saying it would not deport migrants without receiving assurances
from Egypt regarding their welfare.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Tel Aviv said it was still awaiting
clarifications from the Israeli government before "making a judgment" on the
latest returnees.
"'The court must intervene immediately to stop the endangerment of lives of
asylum-seekers," lawyers Anat Ben Dor and Yonatan Berman wrote in the urgent
appeal filed on 27 August, which failed to prevent the deportations.
*"Specific failure"*
Brig-Gen Yoel Strick of the military's Southern Command said in his
deposition to the court that there was what he termed a "specific failure"-
meaning the "infiltrators" were indeed returned without a chance to present
their cases for asylum, against Israeli official policy, but that there was
no endemic problem.
To make sure the failure did not recur, the commander said soldiers would be
briefed about questioning asylum-seekers but the immediate return policy
would still be implemented.
Strick said he had received assurances from the Egyptians regarding the
safety of the migrants.
The rights groups, led by the Hotline for Migrant Workers, said trained
professionals and not soldiers should interview potential refugees and that
the military was giving the job to inexperienced soldiers serving in
mandatory draft or reserve services.
The NGO was also worried as the Egyptian government had sent migrants back
to their country of origin, in some cases back to harsh conditions or
internment.
News reports from Egypt suggested the Africans would be returned to their
home countries and reported the migrants were Eritrean, Somali and
Sudanese.
More than 8,000 mostly African migrants have crossed into Israel illegally
in the past few years, rights groups and UN officials said.
Israeli officials have said an unchecked flow of migrants through the border
posed economic and security risks for Israel.
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