Israel on Sunday rejected 50 Africans -- most of them reportedly from Sudan's Darfur region -- who had illegally entered the country from Egypt, a government official said.
The move angered many Israeli lawmakers and human rights advocates because of reports that some Sudanese refugees are being killed or mistreated by authorities in Egypt.
Israel has been struggling with how to cope with an increasing number of Africans, including some from Darfur, who enter the country through Israel's southern border with Egypt.
According to Israel's Haaretz newspaper, the refugees were arrested Friday evening as they tried to cross from Egypt into Israel. They were held at a military base in southern Israel before being driven back to Egypt on Sunday, the newspaper reported.
The nationalities of the 50 sent back Sunday were not released, but the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing figures from the Israeli military, said nearly all of them had escaped the genocide in Darfur.
Speaking to CNN, Israeli government spokesman David Baker described them as "economic refugees from Africa."
Baker told The Associated Press that Darfurians would not be immune from Israel's ban on unauthorized immigrants.
Israeli law denies asylum to anyone from an enemy state, AP reports. Sudan's Muslim government is hostile to Israel and has no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.
Eytan Schwartz, an advocate for Darfur refugees in Israel, told AP that about 400 have entered Israel in recent years. Baker said they would be allowed to live in Israel, and that the ban applied to new arrivals.
Dozens of Israeli lawmakers recently signed a petition urging the government not to deport Sudanese refugees.
Arab militias supported by Sudan's government have committed numerous human rights atrocities, U.N. officials say, including the slaughter and gang rape of civilians, destruction of water sources, looting and burning of buildings and crops.
Earlier this month, Israel's Channel 10 interviewed Israeli soldiers who said they had witnessed Egyptian security officers executing several Darfur refugees.
According to Channel 10, their testimonies were backed up by Israeli military security cameras that showed Egyptian soldiers shooting and killing several asylum-seekers.
Channel 10 did not air the video.
According to Haaretz, one of the asylum-seekers "jumped on the wire fence in an attempt to make it over to the Israeli side, but was reportedly dragged back and bludgeoned to death by the Egyptians."
Responding to the report, Human Rights Watch called on Egypt to investigate the reported deaths.
There has been no public response from the Egyptian government.
An Israeli government official told Reuters that Israel had received "Egyptian commitments" that refugees from Darfur would not be returned to Sudan.
Since the beginning of the year, nearly 3,000 Africans have crossed from Egypt into Israel -- nearly half of them from Sudan, many traveling on foot.
Many Sudanese refugees end up in Israeli prisons waiting for the government to decide what to do with them. Israeli volunteers -- outraged at the incarcerations -- have helped many Sudanese find work in Israel's agricultural communities and temporarily live in family homes across Israel.
"This whole issue of people crossing over from Sinai, people from Africa, to come to Israel is a new issue," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "And it's taken a while to get the government to respond correctly."
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Sun Aug 19, 2007 3:29 pm