Israel deports 50 Sudanese refugees to Egypt
Monday, 20 August 2007
JERUSALEM, Aug 19(AFP): Israel Sunday returned to Egypt 50 Sudanese refugees who had entered the country illegally the previous day, a senior official said.
"These Sudanese were handed over to the Egyptian authorities in accordance with an accelerated deportation procedure," a senior official in the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the news agency on condition of anonymity.
African refugees trying to enter Israel illegally through its porous 250-kilometre (155-mile) border with Egypt are caught nearly every day.
More than 220 Africans, mostly Sudanese from the war-torn Darfur region, were arrested in July alone while trying to cross the frontier, Egyptian officials have said.
"These Sudanese were handed over to the Egyptian authorities in accordance with an accelerated deportation procedure," a senior official in the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the news agency on condition of anonymity.
African refugees trying to enter Israel illegally through its porous 250-kilometre (155-mile) border with Egypt are caught nearly every day.
More than 220 Africans, mostly Sudanese from the war-torn Darfur region, were arrested in July alone while trying to cross the frontier, Egyptian officials have said.