Egypt releases 164 Sudanese detained after protest

Jan 12, 2006 (CAIRO) — The Egyptian authorities released 164 Sudanese who were among a group of more than 600 detained by police following the break-up of a protest last month, a spokeswoman from the UN refugee agency today said.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been interviewing the detained Sudanese to determine whether any of them are entitled to be labelled refugees, a legal status which would exempt them from deportation.

“Yesterday, blue and yellow card holders were released,” UNHCR spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort told Reuters.

Sudanese in Cairo who are given blue and yellow cards by the UNHCR are eligible for assistance from the agency.

The Sudanese were among up to 3,500 people who held the sit-in protest, which lasted about three months, demanding resettlement in Western countries. Twenty-seven Sudanese were killed in clashes when police broke up the protest.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has said the authorities plan to release Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers but deport illegal immigrants.

The UNHCR says there are up to 3 million Sudanese living in Egypt, of which 20,000 are registered with the agency. Sudan suffered two decades of north-south civil war and has an ongoing conflict in the Darfur region.

Stort said those released included 92 men, 41 women and 31 children. She added the UNHCR, which has asked the government not to deport any of the group, would try to secure the release of all of the women and children held by the authorities.

(Reuters)