EGYPT: HEADING OFF FUTURE FORCIBLE RETURNS OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L STATE 068478

SIPDIS
GENEVA FOR RMA
ADDIS FOR REFCOORD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/24/2013
TAGS: PHUM PREF PREL EG ER
SUBJECT: EGYPT: HEADING OFF FUTURE FORCIBLE RETURNS OF
ASYLUM SEEKERS

REF: A. CAIRO 1316

B. CAIRO 1322

Classified By: PRM AFR Margaret McKelvey for reason 1.4 (d)


1. (C) Dept greatly appreciate's EMBASSY Cairo's efforts on
behalf of Eritrean asylum seekers in Egypt and welcomes the
proposed talking points. Slight modifications are suggested
below from NEA and PRM.


2. (C) Proposed talking points:


-- We recognize that Egypt is both a destination and transit
country for asylum seekers and economic migrants, and we
recognize Egypt's right and obligation to its citizens to
properly control is borders.

-- We share your concern about the continued flow of mostly
African asylum seekers and economic migrants transiting Egypt
in illegal attempts to reach Israel. We recognize that Egypt
faces legitimate security concerns over the smuggling of
people, and potentially of weapons and narcotics.

-- We commend Egypt for historically maintaining a generous
asylum policy, even while facing large flows of asylum
seekers. Egypt has been particularly generous to the
hundreds of thousands of Sudanese asylum seekers and economic
migrants in the country.

-- However, we are concerned by credible reports that your
government has recently returned some one thousand Eritrean
asylum seekers to Eritrea, before they could be properly
interviewed and processed by the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

-- From the humanitarian perspective, the UNHCR has called
for countries to refrain from all returns of rejected asylum
seekers to Eritrea and instead grant them some complementary
form of protection, due to well-founded fears of persecution
- including torture - upon their return.

-- From a practical standpoint, it is not clear that
returning these Eritreans will deter others from illegally
entering Egypt and/or illegally transiting Egypt onwards to
Israel. We note that dozens of Africans attempting to
illegally cross from the Sinai to Israel have been killed by
Egyptian security forces over the past year, and that these
incidents have not deterred others from making the attempt.

-- Finally, we note that large-scale forced repatriation of
Eritreans is a human rights concern that has attracted
significant public attention from will likely also attract
the interest of members of the U.S. Congress.

-- We ask that you work with the UNHCR and your international
partners on this issue rather than unilaterally deporting
Eritrean asylum seekers. (Note. If the GOE criticizes UNHCR
for not doing its job, as they have recently in other
meetings, EMBASSY may wish to point out that from late
February until mid-June, the GOE restricted UNHCR from having
access to the Eritreans in question. Thus, under these
circumstances, criticism of UNHCR performance may be
considered unduly harsh.)

-- The U.S. has resettled some 1,500 Eritrean refugees from
the Near East and Horn of Africa since 2005 and expects
to resettle even larger numbers in the coming year.

-- The U.S. is prepared to consider any resettlement case
referred to us by the UNHCR in Egypt. We have resettled over
10,000 Sudanese refugees referred by the UNHCR in Egypt,
primarily between 1998 and 2006, and maintain significant
processing capacity in Cairo.

-- We intend to discuss this issue further with UNHCR and
other international partners at a multilateral meeting on
refugee
resettlement in Geneva the week of June 30.
RICE