EGYPT ALLEGEDLY DEPORTS SUDANESE MIGRANTS RETURNED

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 003190

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/01/2017
TAGS: PREL PREF PHUM EG IS SU
SUBJECT: EGYPT ALLEGEDLY DEPORTS SUDANESE MIGRANTS RETURNED
FROM ISRAEL

REF: CAIRO 2937 AND PREVIOUS

Classified by Minister Counselor for Economic and Political
Affairs William R. Stewart for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (SBU) Commenting on Israeli press reports that Egypt had
deported five of the 48 mostly-Sudanese Africans whom Israel
had returned to Egypt in August, and who had previously
illegally entered Israel from the Sinai (reftel),UNHCR/Cairo
Spokeperson Abeer Etefa told POLOFF on October 31 that the
GOE was still refusing to give UNHCR access to the group of

48. UNHCR's MFA contacts assured Etefa that the 23 Sudanese
of the group who are UNHCR-designated asylum-seekers or
refugees were unharmed and remained in Egypt. However, he
would not confirm or deny that five of the remaining 25 had
been deported back to Sudan. Similarly Bassel Taman of the
MFA Sudan Office refused to confirm or deny the report to
poloff on November 1, saying only that deportation decisions
in general are made on a case-by-case basis.


2. (SBU) Etefa said that UNHCR was giving the GOE until
Friday, November 2, to allow UNHCR access to the group, and
at that point would release a statement criticizing the GOE.
At issue, she said, was that because the Sudanese had been in
Israel, even if they were not eligible for refugee status
beforehand, they may now be in need of protection from being
returned to Sudan due to its state of war with Israel.


3. (C) Comment: GOE interlocutors have been saying since July
that "we are still deliberating" about what to do regarding
African migrants illegally entering Israel. If true,
Egyptian officials are laying down a marker that they are
willing to deport Sudanese - without refugee or asylum-seeker
status - who have broken Egyptian law, even if by entering
Israel their status may have changed.
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