IDF soldiers returned African migrants to Sinai

 Eritrean migrant says IDF gathered group of 67 Africans caught crossing Egypt-Israel border, separated men and women, sent men back over.
 
IDF soldiers returned dozens of African migrants to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula one night two weeks ago, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR-Israel) reported on Thursday.

If true, the soldier’s actions could very well be a violation of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, of which Israel is a signatory.

According to PHR-Israel, a 20-year-old Eritrean man who came to the organization’s free clinic in Jaffa at the beginning of March said that in late February he was part of a group of 67 African migrants who reached Israeli territory after being held for ransom in Beduin-run camps in the Sinai.

PHR-Israel said the man told them that he and the other Migrants were caught by IDF troops and were split into two groups, with men and women being taken into custody separately. The man told PHR-Israel that he and the other men were held handcuffed and blindfolded from 9am until midnight when the army began driving them in groups of ten to the border with Egypt, where they reportedly told them to cross and began shooting into the air in order to draw Egyptian troops to the area.

The Eritrean man said he then managed to escape from the Egyptian soldiers and made his way to Eilat after wandering through the desert for three days without food or water.

"The nature of our treatment of infiltrators, including the detention and medical treatment of them, is in accordance with IDF orders which have been presented to the Supreme Court and are also in keeping with the state of Israel's obligations to international law.

 Also in the incident in question, the IDF operated according to these requirements."

 The statement added that the IDF has detailed regulations under which it is allowed to return migrants to the Egyptian authorities by way of the Egyptian border, regulations the IDF said have been presented already to the High Court of Justice. These regulations are in keeping with the Israel's obligations to international law.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel issued a statement on Thursday saying “PHR stridently condemns the IDF conduct and the returning of refugees to Egypt without even examining their requests [for asylum]. This is a serious incident, which violates the convention to protect refugees, which forbids the return of asylum seekers to a place where their lives or their freedom will be at risk.”

The statement added that “while the state has declared before the high court that it will not return refugees to the countries they came from without working to ensure their safety and without the use of interrogations, there is a huge gap between the country's declarations and the severe actions carried out on the border with Egypt. The serious implications of returning refugees to Sinai is further validated by recent reports on the torture suffered by asylum seekers in Egypt and the fact that Egypt is known for returning refugees the countries they fled.”

According to a PHR-Israel report in late February, the majority of African migrants who report for treatment at a Jaffa clinic they operate reported that they were held against their will and/or subjected to systematic physical abuse during their time in Sinai en route to Israel.

According to PHR-Israel, 52% of migrants treated at the clinic in Jaffa said they suffered physical abuse and 44% said they witnessed violence and fatalities suffered by other migrants.

A week earlier, the Hotline for Migrant Workers released a report entitled “The Dead of the Wilderness” which detailed beatings, rape, murder, and extortion that African migrants reported suffering at the hands of Beduin smugglers.

The report was the result of interviews the hotline conducted with 60 African migrants, mainly from Eritrea, 24 of them women and 36 men, who said they suffered severe brutality on their way to Israel.

Reports have surfaced that the smuggling gangs use Eritrean and Sudanese collaborators in Israel who help them extort the money from the relatives of their captives.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hold a hearing on a petition issued in 2007 by PHR-Israel asking that the state cease “hot returns” of migrants arrested after crossing into Israeli territory.

(Source: Jerusalem Post)