Egyptian Policy Imperils Refugees, Migrants at Israel's Door

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 12, 2008

CAIRO -- Egyptian security forces are killing an increasing number of Darfurian refugees and other African migrants attempting to cross from Egypt's Sinai desert into Israel in pursuit of jobs and a better life, according to refugees, human rights groups and the Egyptian government.

Since the first recorded border killing in the summer of 2007, when Egyptian authorities announced a live-fire policy on the Sinai border, Egyptian security forces have shot dead at least 28 migrants as they left Egypt for Israel, the rights group Amnesty International said Thursday. Of those, the group said, 23 have been killed since January.

Survivors of three border shootings say Egyptian forces shot and killed some migrants without warning as they lay on the ground or raised their hands in surrender -- allegations the Egyptian government denies. Although most refugees interviewed on the subject by human rights groups have said warning shots preceded the shootings, the rights groups contend the use of deadly force violates international law because the unarmed migrants pose no threat. At times, though, local Bedouins who guide the migrants to the border do carry weapons, and Bedouin smugglers have killed two Egyptian security officials since December.

Refugee advocates say that Israeli and U.S. pressure on Egypt to stop the flow of African migrants into Israel led the Egyptian government to adopt its live-fire policy -- an assertion Israeli and U.S. officials deny. Israeli officials do, however, acknowledge fears that their prosperous country will be overwhelmed if African migration across its porous 155-mile-long border with Egypt is not checked.

Sudan's government has also urged Egypt to take tough measures against Sudanese citizens trying to enter Israel, a country with which Sudan remains officially at war. The Sudanese refugee commissioner, Mohamed Ahmed al-Aghbash, said in July 2007 that any Sudanese entering Israel were pursuing "Zionist agendas" and urged Egyptian officials to "firmly penalize" them.

Thousands of African migrants have made the crossing in recent years, with the number increasing sharply in the past two years despite Egypt's live-fire policy, rights groups said. Egyptian officials said last month that they had arrested 587 migrants at the Sinai border since January.

A spokesman for Egypt's Foreign Ministry, Hossam Zaki, said, "Those people attempting to cross the border illegally are given ample warning by Egyptian authorities before being fired at."

In a written statement, the ministry said that if someone was spotted trying to cross the border, authorities were required to "order him to stop immediately." When migrants refuse to stop, the statement said, "the authorities have to deal with them to ensure respecting the law."

The spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Margaret White, wrote in an e-mail response to questions: "We appreciate the difficulties of securing this border against illegal crossings by armed criminal and terrorist groups. However, we do not believe that use of deadly force is an appropriate method of interdiction."

Intissar Adam, a 20-year-old refugee from Darfur living in Sixth of October City outside Cairo, described how she and five other African migrants attempted to cross the Egypt-Israel border in late June. As her group neared the frontier, she said, Egyptian forces on higher ground opened fire without calling for them to stop or firing warning shots.

"They just started shooting," she said.

Three of the migrants sprinted across the border into Israel, she said, while she and another migrant froze with their hands in the air. Adam said her 26-year-old cousin, Younis Zakaria, fell to the ground on his back beside her and stretched his arms above his head.

"But they still shot him," Adam recounted, saying an Egyptian officer placed his rifle against her cousin's side and pulled the trigger. She said the officer later told her he did so because he was following orders from Sudan's president.

More than 20,000 Sudanese are registered with the Egyptian offices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees as war refugees or asylum seekers. Of those, about 3,000 refugees are from Darfur, where U.N. officials say fighting between government-backed Arab militias and African rebels has led to the deaths of as many as 450,000 people, most of them civilians, and driven an additional 2.5 million from their homes.

In Egypt, Darfuris and other Sudanese say they struggle to feed their families and encounter discrimination and violence from Egyptians, who view them as competition for jobs. In 2005, Egyptian riot police killed 27 Sudanese demonstrators in Cairo seeking U.N. help to leave Egypt.

Asked whether U.N. refugee officials had discussed the border shootings with Egyptian authorities, spokeswoman Abeer Etefa in Cairo said, "I'm sure it has been brought up many times."

"We basically are advocating for . . . not using force excessively along these border lines," Etefa said. "Having said that, no refugee is above the law."

Sudanese, many of them from Darfur, make up the largest number of those killed in the shootings. The dead include at least five women and a 7-year-old girl, according to Egyptian officials' accounts to news media and rights groups.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said most survivors it had interviewed stated that Egyptian security forces had shouted warnings or fired warning shots before shooting at their groups. Either way, the shootings were illegal, because the unarmed migrants posed no physical threat, said Bill Van Esveld, a researcher with the group.

"In every case I know of where migrants and refugees have been killed, the police have not been under fire," Van Esveld said.

Another Darfur refugee, 32-year-old Fawzia Mohammed, said Egyptian forces opened fire on her and her three children as they tried to cross into Israel in March with about 30 other migrants. She said no warning shots were fired.

"The police saw us, and right away they started opening fire," she said. She and some other migrants stopped and raised their hands, or fell on their children to shield them. Five in her group died, she said.

Refugees' accounts of the two episodes could not be independently verified. Human Rights Watch said it had collected similar testimony from a survivor in a third shooting in which migrants said they were fired upon without warning as they sat or lay on the ground. In the case of Hagga Abbas Haroun of Darfur, whose death in July 2007 was the first killing confirmed by Egypt as it escalated force against the migrants, Egyptian border police came upon the migrants as they slept near the frontier at night, relatives of the dead woman said.

Haroun, seven months pregnant at the time, was shot in the head as she slept on the ground with her 2-year-old child, according to accounts by her family. The Egyptian autopsy report said she died instantly.

Barbara Harrell-Bond, who left Egypt this month after years teaching in the refugee studies program at the American University in Cairo, said Egypt had adopted its more aggressive policy on the border in response to U.S. and Israeli demands.

"Of course the pressure from America and Israel on Egypt is producing this kind of inhumane, undue-force attempt to protect the border," Harrell-Bond said.

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Egypt was responsible for setting its own border policy, including the use of lethal force, but acknowledged Israel had made overtures to Egypt about the flow of migrants.

"We have approached the Egyptians on a number of occasions at different levels, including the very highest level . . . and have urged them to do more to prevent people from crossing into Israel illegally," he said.

At the same time, Regev said, Israel does not permit its forces to fire on migrants spotted entering its territory. "Israel is a country with rule of law, where you can only use force where force is required," he said.

Special correspondent Sherine al-Bayoumi in Cairo contributed to this report.