Confusion over deportation of Sudanese in wake of clashes

There has been no official confirmation of reports that the government is considering the deportation of hundreds of Sudanese refugees and failed asylum seekers who clashed with riot police six days ago in violence that left dozens dead and scores injured. “We’ve received no official confirmation or denial from the ministry of foreign affairs about reports that people would be deported,” said a spokeswoman from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Cairo, Astrid van Genderen Stort. According to the 4 January edition of government daily Al-Ahram, the foreign ministry had begun preparing for “the deportation of 654 Sudanese to their country of origin”. In its 3 January edition, the broadsheet quoted Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Abul-Gheit as saying: “Those who are to be repatriated are from Southern Sudan, where conditions now allow for their safe return following the conclusion of the civil war and the signing of a peace treaty there.” The paper went on to report that the Sudanese government, via its embassy in Cairo, had offered to fly deportees back to Khartoum. Van Genderen Stort, however, maintained that the issue was still unclear. “Despite reports in the press, we’ve received assurances from the foreign ministry that no one would be deported at this point in time; that the decision of the ministry is still pending,” she said. No spokespeople at the foreign affairs ministry were available for comment. The issue reached a climax on 29 December, when police broke up a three-month long sit-in protest by Sudanese refugees and failed asylum seekers in Cairo's Moustafa Mahmoud Park. Setting up a makeshift “camp” in the middle of the capital’s upscale Mohandiseen district, protestors had demanded refugee status and resettlement to a third country. In 2004, the UN refugee agency UNHCR, changed its policy on Sudanese refugees, due to the peace process and improved conditions in Sudan. The move resulted in considerable resentment among Egypt’s Sudanese refugee community, members of which saw their chances of resettlement in the first world diminish. However, resettlement is not a right and certain criteria must be met. In the early hours of 30 December, Egyptian security forces moved in to remove protestors by force. Encountering resistance, they used truncheons and water cannons to evacuate demonstrators from the premises. According to the latest reports, some 27 protestors were killed, while another 70 were injured in the confrontation. Some human rights groups maintain that the numbers of dead may be higher. In the wake of the incident, between 2,000 and 2,500 Sudanese were arrested and brought to detention centres outside the capital. A confederation of local human-rights groups has now called for an investigation into the affair, urging in a statement that “the public prosecutor immediately appoint a magistrate to open a serious and transparent investigation into the assault by Egyptian security troops against Sudanese refugees and the excessive use of power against them”. The statement further demanded that civil society organisations be given access to Sudanese protestors who remain in detention, so they can be provided with legal and medical aid. Magda Adly of the independent El-Nadim Centre for Victims of Torture, one of the petition’s signatory organisations, described the reported threat of repatriation as “being entirely unlawful, as this is an act of forced deportation”. According to Wadgi Abdel Aziz, director of local NGO Ganoub Centre for Human Rights, which has worked closely with the protestors, such a move would contravene international commitments to which Cairo is a signatory. “Egypt is violating the provisions of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, to which it is a party,” Abdel Aziz said. “Especially article 33 of the convention, which relates to the prohibition of expulsion of refugees to countries in which their life or well-being is threatened.” In a letter to President Hosni Mubarak, New-York based Human Rights Watch noted that a mass deportation would “in effect, expel hundreds of potential witnesses to the police action that occurred on December 30”. “An independent investigation is absolutely necessary to assess responsibility and punish those responsible,” it continued. “According to news reports, you have asked the Attorney General to undertake an investigation of this tragedy. The precipitous return of hundreds of victims and witnesses makes such an investigation an empty gesture,” it added. Van Genderen Stort said on Wednesday that some 1,500 of the arrested protestors had been released, while about 600 others remained in detention. While the government has said it would release detainees holding official documentation, she pointed out that many protestors and their families lost their papers during the violence. “We’ve appealed to the Egyptian authorities to give us access to the detainees in the detention centres,” she said. “But we don’t have an official list of who was detained, so we’re guessing.” Van Genderen Stort added that UNHCR had already distributed blankets and medicines to those who had been released, while food packages were being prepared for distribution on Thursday. The agency has also arranged, in cooperation with local banks, a one-off financial assistance programme that will provide between 300 Egyptian pounds (approx US $52 ) and 700 Egyptian pounds (approx $122 ) to those left homeless. On Tuesday, the park that had been the site of the confrontation was hastily cleaned up and replanted with fresh grass and trees. By Wednesday, riot police were still guarding it and adjacent streets, while numerous troop carriers containing armed soldiers remained parked in the area.