Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
13 June 2008
Cairo — The government forcibly returned some 200 asylum-seekers to Eritrea Wednesday and are preparing to force out a further 1,400, an international human rights watchdog said Friday.
In Eritrea they will be at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, according to Amnesty International. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Egypt had not been granted access to any of the Eritreans to assess their asylum claims, despite repeated requests. The authorities appear to have scheduled a number of special flights to Eritrea.
A group of 169 Eritrean asylum-seekers could be returned as early as the evening of Friday: they were moved from Nasr al Nuba police station near Aswan city, where they had been detained, to Central Security Forces camp in Shallal, south of Aswan.
Hundreds of Eritrean asylum-seekers are detained in several police stations near Aswan city. Dozens of others are detained in Al-Qanater prison near the capital, Cairo. Around 700 are detained near the Red Sea cities of Hurghada and Marsa Alam.
Lawyers representing the asylum-seekers held in Aswan believe that 200 of those held in Hurghada are being transported to Aswan, in preparation for forcible return, Amnesty said.
The 200 asylum-seekers deported on Wednesday had been detained in a Central security forces camp in Shallal in Aswan city. They were told they would be transported to the UNHCR office in Cairo. Their lawyers tried to reach them the same evening to offer medication and food but could not get to them. The Eritreans were then taken to Aswan International airport and put on a special EgyptAir flight to Eritrea.
Most asylum-seekers returned to Eritrea are likely to be arbitrarily detained incommunicado in inhumane conditions from weeks to years, according to Amnesty. They will be at serious risk of torture or other ill-treatment, particularly those who have fled from compulsory military service.
Since the end of February, flows of Eritrean asylum-seekers have reached Egypt either via its southern border with Sudan or by sea, south of the city of Hurghada. Others are recognized as refugees by the UNHCR in Sudan, and are fleeing Sudan to avoid being forcibly returned to Eritrea by the Sudanese authorities.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued guidelines to all governments opposing return to Eritrea of rejected Eritrean asylum seekers on the grounds of the record of serious human rights violations in Eritrea. These guidelines are still in force.
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