Egypt hinders UN access to Eritrean asylum seekers

Egypt has obstructed the UN refugee agency's access to hundreds of detained Eritrean asylum seekers who are at risk of deportation and could face torture if they are returned to Asmara, UNHCR said yesterday.

The move came as Egypt continues secretive large-scale deportations of Eritrean asylum seekers despite objections by UNHCR, with at least 810 feared deported since June 11 and hundreds more at risk, according to Amnesty International.

The deportations are the largest forced returns of asylum seekers from Egypt in decades, and could mark a shift in Egypt's policy toward tens of thousands of largely African migrants on its territory, activists say.

"The UN refugee agency is very alarmed over consistent reports of ongoing forcible returns of Eritrean asylum seekers from Egypt," a UNHCR statement said, appealing to Egypt for information on the location and condition of 1,400 Eritreans. Egypt, facing international pressure over the deportations, agreed on Sunday to let UNHCR visit detained Eritreans for the first time since February. UN teams saw 140 in southern Egypt, before being blocked from seeing hundreds more elsewhere.

"In some instances they were asked to bring specific permission from prison authorities while at other locations they were informed that Eritrean asylum seekers were no longer present," UNHCR said.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry could not be reached for comment. Under international law, states must not send home asylum seekers with a well-founded fear of persecution if they return. Egypt's attitude towards the Eritrean migrants soured after it came under pressure in recent months to staunch the flow of Africans over its Sinai border into Israel.

In fresh violence against migrants at the Israel border yesterday, Egyptian police shot dead an African man as he tried to slip across the frontier, bringing to 14 the number of migrants killed at the border this year, security sources said.

The dead migrant was thought to be an African in his 30s, but could not be further identified.