Last update - 00:00 05/07/2007
IDF deposits more than 50 African refugees in Be'er Sheva
By Shahar Ilan, Mijal Grinberg and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondents
An Israel Defense Forces bus dropped in Be'er Sheva some 40 Sudanese and 16 Eritrean refugees caught while crossing into Israel from Egypt.
The refugees were left next to the train station in the center of the city. The Sudanese refugees stayed in Be'er Sheva, while the Eritreans refugees went on to Tel Aviv, where they intend to go to United Nations offices to request refugee status.
In the last week, the Be'er Sheva municipality has provided housing for some 180 refugees in hotels in the city. However, city officials said if a solution for the refugees was not found by Sunday, they would be sent to Jerusalem.
The African refugees who will be returned to Egypt 'will not be returned to countries where their lives are in danger,' Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday, at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Olmert was trying to assuage concerns of human rights organizations regarding the fate of the refugees once they were deported to Egypt, from where they crossed into Israel.
Olmert and Egypt President Hosni Mubarak agreed last week that Israel would deport the African refugees back to Egypt though international border crossings.
Human rights groups expressed concern on Sunday that the prime minister?s announcement regarding the deportation of the refugees failed to address questions about their safety, particularly the likelihood that they may in turn be deported from Egypt back to their home countries. Many are refugees from Sudan, and there is genuine concern for their safety if they are sent back to their home country.
Olmert told the Foreign Affairs committee that some 2,800 refugees and economic migrants have crossed into Israel from Egypt, and that 1,160 of them are from Sudan. According to Olmert's data, 2,500 persons crossing into Israel from Sinai during the first six months of the year.'
Olmert promised that Israel will absorb the refugees that have already arrived from Darfur, and will help settle them in Israel. As for the rest, he said that they will be returned to Egypt.