Egypt justifies migrants’ murder amid condemnation, frustration

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Posted by bikyamasr on 15/09/2009

Egypt justifies migrants’ murder amid condemnation, frustration


Bikya Masr

15 September 2009


Egypt defends border murders as Africans frustration continues. -T.A.
CAIRO: The Egyptian foreign ministry defended its security forces’ killing of migrants along the lengthy desert border with Israel on Monday, arguing that the country defends the borders within a framework of “respect” for international law and human rights. The statement issued by the ministry comes only days after a four Ethiopians were killed and three others seriously wounded last Wednesday by security forces.

Rights groups have been outspoken against the use of deadly force along the border with the Jewish state.

Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Hossam Zaki, said in the statement that “Egyptian security forces use gradual measures and start by issuing warnings by loudspeakers, several times and then they fire in the air.”

“Egyptian guards only fire in the direction of the migrants when they refuse to stop in this sensitive area of the borders,” added Zaki.

He argued that security measures are a means of securing the border areas and are not in violation of international agreements against smuggling.

“Dealing with these migrants is for Egyptian national security and safety of its forces and Egypt’s international commitment to fight smuggling,” said Zaki.

The killings are the deadliest reported incident on the border and come only days before Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Cairo on Sunday.

International rights groups have been up in arms over the increasing violence along the border in the past two years.

“Enough is enough. This incident is further proof, if any should be needed, that the Egyptian authorities have yet to direct their forces on how to avoid killing migrants trying to cross the border,” said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Amnesty International. “They must assert greater control over their forces at the border and take away their license to kill.”

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a detailed report last year that criticized the Egyptian government’s “shoot-to-stop” policy that has left scores of Africans dead.

Since May, Egypt has killed at least 12 Africans along the border and an end to the killings seems as distant as ever.

Many Africans in Cairo boast of friends who have succeeded in making the border gauntlet into Israel. Ahmed admits that despite turning back from his own plans to cross into Israel, he knows that success in the Jewish state can be a reality.

“I have a number of friends who have told me of the joy they are having in Israel, where they work and have a life again,” says Somali refugee Ali Ahmed.

But that hope has been dashed for dozens of Africans who have been met with bullets.

One of the reasons Africans living in Egypt seek Israel is the poor conditions they experience in the country. Ranging from unemployment, racism and lack of funds, the Africans are distraught at their lives, unable to find a niche in Egypt.

Many of Egypt’s tens of thousands of refugees are Sudanese. Since 2003, nearly all the Sudanese coming into the North African nation are from the war-torn Western Sudan region of Darfur, but thousands of other Africans, including a few thousands from Somalia have attempted to make Egypt their temporary residence.

Tawer Ali, Secretary-General at the Cairo-based New Sudan Research and Strategic Studies Center and community leader in the refugee dominated town Arba’a wa Nos(Four and a Half), believes that the situation facing the refugee population in Egypt has driven many to seek a better life in Israel.

“Refugees are very frustrated with the formalities of the UNHCR [because] they are slow moving. Some of them [refugees] have had eight years here, some seven years,” Ali, a refugee himself, told Bikya Masr.

BM