GENEVA: The United Nations refugee agency said Friday that Egypt had not given its staff full and free access to Eritrean asylum seekers despite earlier pledges, and that deportations were still continuing.
We are asking for unhindered access to all persons seeking asylum currently in detention, said UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis.
Egypt said earlier this week that it would grant UNHCR staff full access to Eritreans in detention with a view to determining their status, but this has not been matched by events on the ground, Pagonis said.
A team visited two detention centers in Aswan in southern Egypt, but only met 142 Eritreans and 19 Ethiopians – even though the UNHCR has credible reports that the number of detained asylum seekers is much higher, she noted.
UNHCR teams also went to other detention locations in Egypt but were unable to obtain access. In some instances they were asked to bring specific permission from prison authorities, while at others they were informed by the authorities that Eritrean asylum seekers were no longer present, Pagonis said.
Egypt has expelled 600 Eritrean asylum seekers in a week, an Egyptian security official and a human rights activist told AFP Thursday.
Six hundred asylum seekers have been sent back to Eritrea this week and 600 others are about to be expelled, Mustafa Aboul Hassan, of the Hisham Mubarak Centre, told AFP.
We have told the Egyptian government that if they are expelled to Eritrea, they risk being arrested or tortured, said Aboul Hassan, who heads the center s Aswan office in southern Egypt.
This risk was also raised on Thursday by the top UN human rights official, Louise Arbour, who urged Egypt to stop the deportations, saying the Eritreans could face great risks in their home country.
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.
Hundreds of Eritrean asylum seekers have reached Egypt via its southern border with Sudan, either hoping to receive permanent refugee status, or to sneak into Israel illegally.
Over the past year, Egypt has arrested dozens of illegal immigrants, mostly Africans, trying to cross into Israel from the Sinai in search of work. At least 14 have been shot dead on the border this year alone, the official said.-AFP
