By Ben Lynfield

Jerusalem - When I broke the story last November on this website and elsewhere that 48 African refugees deported by Israel to Egypt on Aug 19,2007 had been confirmed as missing by the United Nations Higher Commission on Refugees I certainly did not imagine that on Aug. 19, 2008 their whereabouts and condition would still be unknown..

God only knows what these people forgotten by the world have been through and are still going through, between Egyptian jails notorious for torture and a Sudanese regime that makes travel to Israel punishable by death or life imprisonment..

We now know that entire groups of people can disappear –perhaps indefinitely–when Israel, Egypt, Sudan and the UNHCR—which is supposed to be protecting the refugees—are involved and when indifference immobilizes us.

The refugees, 44 of them Sudanese, had crossed to Israel on Aug. 17 from Egypt but were expelled by the Israeli army into the Sinai Peninsula two days later after being denied hearings and access to UNHCR officials in contravention of the 1951 Convention on Refugees, to which Israel is a signatory. We know they were all arrested by Egyptian forces because Egypt submitted a list of their names to UNHCR.

But Egypt refused repeated requests by the UNHCR to access the refugees. Nor could their relatives access them. They were held in incommunicado detention. However, I was able to confirm that at least five of the refugees were forcibly repatriated by Egypt to Sudan after 24 days in prison. According to an Egyptian official quoted by the Associated Press, the number of those forcibly repatriated to Sudan was twenty..

Bill Van Esveld, a fellow at Human Rights Watch who monitors Egypt, told me today in reference to the 48 deportees “We just don’t know where they are.”
He took issue with UNHCR’s closing of the file on the 48 based on Egyptian

government statements that they had all been released.

“Human Rights Watch in mid-April documented the forced repatriation in mid-April of 49 Sudanese and Amnesty International documented in early June the forced repatriations of 1200 Eritreans in violation of Egypt’s refugee law obligations”.

“Based on that, it seems you need more than just the word of the Egyptian government to be credibly satisfied that the 48 people deported by Israel to Egypt really have been released”

Meanwhile, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has passed on first reading a bill that could make the “hot return” without hearings policy part of the state’s legal canon-meaning it would be easier for Israel to deport refugees into dangerous situations in the future. The provision is part of legislation known as the Vilnai Bill that would also make any unauthorized crossing into Israel—including by refugees— punishable with 5-7 years in prison.

Appendix:
Sudan criminal act 1991
Article (52)
“Whoever, without permission therefore, joins the service of any state, which is declared by Sudan as enemy state, or involves himself in any commercial, or other transaction with it, or with the agents therof shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or with fine or with both.”
Sudan security forces act Article 6 gives security forces the power to arrest for an indefinite period in order to: “combat the subversive activities of foreign states or organizations, groups, individuals or states or Sudanese groups inside and outside the Sudan.”
Source: Darfur Center for Human Rights