Israel deports 50 Sudanese refugees to Egypt

August 19, 2007 (JERUSALEM) — Israel on Sunday returned to Egypt 50 Sudanese refugees who had entered the country illegally the previous day, a senior official said.

“These Sudanese were handed over to the Egyptian authorities in accordance with an accelerated deportation procedure,” a senior official in the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told AFP on condition of anonymity.

African refugees trying to enter Israel illegally through its porous 250-kilometre (155-mile) border with Egypt are caught nearly every day.

More than 220 Africans, mostly Sudanese from the war-torn Darfur region, were arrested in July alone while trying to cross the frontier, Egyptian officials have said.

In a bid to counter the influx, Israel has said people entering the country illegally from Egypt will be sent back. But it has also said it would help “a small number” of asylum-seekers from Darfur.

According to United Nations figures, there are currently 1,200 refugees from Sudan in Israel, among them 300 from Darfur region.

(AFP)