Last update - 00:00 01/07/2007
Hotline for Migrant Workers: Accord to deport refugees to Egypt violates int'l law
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
The Hotline for Migrant Workers criticized Sunday an agreement reached between Egypt and Israel, according to which refugees who cross into Israel from Egypt will be deported back to Egypt, calling it a violation of international law.
"Expelling asylum seekers to Egypt without guarantees that they will not be expelled from there to their countries of origin is a clear violation of international law," the group said in a statement. "We are shocked by this insensitive decision."
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Sunday with the interministerial committee on refugees in order to discuss future policies regarding infilitrators attempting to cross from Egypt into Israel.
According to an agreement reached between Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during last week's summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Africans caught infiltrating Israel will be sent back to Egypt.
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, Interior Ministery Roni Bar-On, and representatives from the defense establishment and Foreign Ministry participated in Sunday's meeting. The prime minister said during the meeting that he and Mubarak agreed that in every instance the Israel Defense Forces fails to prevent infiltrators from crossing the border, they will be transferred to border crossings upon their arrest inside Israel.
In the course of the meeting, Olmert gave the Defense Ministry the responsibility to establish a mechanism to coordinate with Egypt the transfer of infiltrators.
The prime minister added that if Egypt refuses to receive the infiltrators, diplomatic measures will be taken through the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office. At this stage, if the Egyptians continue to refuse, the infiltrators will be transferred to the police, which will deal with them according to the law regulating entrance into Israel.
In most cases, this will mean 60 days detention, followed by deportation. If deportation is not possible, the infiltrators will be transferred to the Interior Ministry.
Sunday's meeting also yielded an official policy regarding infiltrators currently inside Israel. It was decided that the Interior Ministry and the Defense Ministry will compile, along with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), a list of their names and countries of origin, after which Egypt will be urged to take them back.
Israel is also looking into the possibility of aiding the few Sudanese refugees from Darfur that are currently in Israel, only after infiltration is heavily curbed.
Olmert instructed the Foreign Minister to act toward formulating an aid plan for refugees from Darfur currently in camps in Africa. The plan will be brought before the government for approval. Alongside this plan, the Foreign Ministry is to design a public relations campaign to explain both the humanitarian aid Israel will provide Darfur refugees and the matter of infiltration in general.