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Israeli activists and Sudanese refugees attend a rally outside Israel's parliament in Jerusalem, July 15, 2007 as letters addressed to Israel's prime minister demanding assistance for refugees are scattered on the ground. (Photo By Orel Cohen/FLASH90)
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| By Israel Insider staff July 22, 2007 |
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Egyptian police killed one African refugee, and wounded four others, as they attempted to enter Israel from the Sinai Peninsula Sunday.
Haja Abbas Haroun, a 28-year-old Sudanese woman was killed by police gunfire, while the others were critically wounded and taken to a nearby hospital.
Physicians for Human Rights estimate that approximately 200 refugees, mostly from Sudan, are smuggled into Israel from Egypt each year. Refugees attempting to enter Israel are often arrested or detained, but this death is the first case like it.
The Egyptian police arrested 22 other refugees who were trying to enter Israel with Haroun, 18 of which were from Darfur. The remainder were from Eritrea and the Ivory Coast.
According to Capt. Mohammed Badr of the northern Sinai police, the refugees had paid thousands of dollars to smugglers who would help them enter Israel. However, the smugglers escaped just before police arrived on the scene.
IDF abandons African refugees in Beer Sheba
According to reports in Israeli media, the Israel Defense Forces abandoned 45 African refugees in a Beduin market in Beer Sheba. Beer Sheba accepted hundreds of refugees in the past, but recently declared it would not take anymore.
Earlier this month, in an act of protest by Beer Sheba Mayor Ya'acov Turner, approximately 50 refugees from Darfur were transported from Beer Sheba, where they had stayed after infiltrating Israel, to Jerusalem's Wohl Rose Garden. Turner asserted that it was the Israeli government's responsibility to care for the refugees, not that of the southern Israeli city.
Minister of Public Security Avi Dichter recently announced that the state intended to build a "campsite" next to Ketziot Prison in the Negev where refugees could be held and families can stay together until they are deported. The "hospitality facility," however, hasn't been completed.
African refugees entering illegally from Egypt has caused much controversy in Israel. They are often assumed to be a security risk and are arrested. Many feel that it is Israel's responsibility as the Jewish State to take in the refugees, because if they are deported, they risk being killed. The state has yet to find an adequate solution for the growing problem. |
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