Cairo
25 June 2008
PRESS RELEASE
30 African and International NGOs Urge AU Summit to
Address Egypt's Forced
Deportations of Eritreans
In the wake of the African Union Summit taking
place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, 30 African and international human
rights and development organizations sent an urgent appeal to African
leaders before their upcoming meeting on 30 June, 2008, urging them to
demand from the Egyptian authorities an immediate cessation of mass
deportations of hundreds of Eritrean asylum seekers from Egypt to
Eritrea. The organizations warned that such deportations violated
Egypt's legal obligations and exposed the returned Eritreans to
arbitrary detention, torture and mistreatment by the Eritrian
government.
Enclosed is the appeal sent to the African Leaders.
Sharm El Sheikh
23 June 2008
Urgent Appeal to African Leaders:
Put an end to Egypt's deportation
of Eritrean asylum seekers
We, the undersigned organizations, call upon
African leaders attending the African Union (AU) summit in Sharm
el-Sheikh, to urge Egypt to respect its obligations under international
law and to cease immediately the deportation of Eritrean asylum seekers.
Starting 11 June 2008 Egyptian authorities have forcibly returned more
than 700 Eritrean asylum seekers to Eritrea, where there is a
significant risk that they will be subjected to arbitrary detention,
torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment by the Eritrean
government. Hundreds of others are detained in several police stations
across Egypt awaiting deportation back to Eritrea. Some of these
individuals were previously recognized as refugees by the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Sudan, and fled to Cairo to
avoid being forcibly returned to Eritrea by the Sudanese authorities.
By deporting these individuals, Egypt lies in
violation of its obligations under the 1969 Organization of African
Unity (OAU) Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee
Problems in Africa, the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees and the UN Convention Against Torture, all of which oblige
state parties to respect the principle of non-refoulement. The
deportation of the Eritrean asylum seekers was also done in complete
disregard to recent UNHCR guidelines distributed to all governments and
stating that rejected Eritrean asylum seekers should not be returned to
Eritrea. A number of NGOs have also called upon the Egyptian government
to cease the deportations.
The undersigned organizations are urging African
leaders to:
·
Urge the Egyptian government to respect
its commitment to the principle of non-refoulement and to cease the
forcible return of Eritrean asylum-seekers who face a significant risk
of torture and ill-treatment
·
Call on the Eritrean government to stop
all acts of arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and inhuman and
degrading treatment.
·
To grant unhindered access by UNHCR staff
to detained asylum seekers in order to ensure the careful consideration
of every asylum application filed by Eritrean individuals.
·
To urge both Egyptian and Eritrean
authorities to allow, without delay, access by humanitarian and human
rights groups to detained Eritreans, and to fully respect their human
rights in accordance with the AU Constitutive Act and the African
Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
·
To invite the Special Rapporteur for
Refugees, Asylum Seekers, IDPs and Migrants of the African Commission on
Human and Peoples' Rights to investigate and report on these events as a
matter of urgency.
We thank you for taking note of our concerns.
1.ACORD International
2.Action Aid International –
Africa
3.Action for Conflict
Transformation
4.Advocates Africa
5.African Public Health Alliance
6.African Women Development And
Comunication Network FEMNET
7.Afroflag Youth Vision
8.Algerian Coordination for
Families of The Missing
9.Al-Nadeem Center
for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence
10.
Arab Program for Human
Rights Activists
11.
Cairo Institute for Human
Rights Studies
12.
Civic Monitor for Human
Rights
13.
Collectif
des Associations et ONG Féminines du Burundi (CAFOB)
14.
Conseil
National pour les libertés en Tunisie (CNLT)
15.
Darfur Consortium
16.
Egyptian Initiative for
Personal Rights
17.
Egyptian Organization for
Human Rights
18.
Fahamu
19.
FAMEDEV : Inter Africa
Network for Women Media, Gender, Equity And Development
20.
Fédération
International des ligues des Droits de l’Homme
21.
International Refugee
Rights Initiative
22.
Khartoum Center for Human
Rights and Environmental Development
23.
Land Center for Human
Rights
24.
Ligue
Tunisienne pour la défense des droits de l’homme (LTDH)
25.
Organisation Marocaine pour les Défense des Droits Humains
26.
Participatory Ecologoical
Land Use Association
27.
Peace And Development
Platform
28.
West African Network for
Peace Building (WANEP)
29.
WOLPNET – Women of Liberia
Peace Network
30.
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO
Forum
