Egypt to deport 600 Sudanese

Published January 3, 2006

KHARTOUM, Jan 2: Egyptian authorities are preparing to deport some 600 Sudanese, part of a group of nearly 2,000 people detained after police forcibly broke up a protest in Cairo, a Sudanese official said on Monday.

“The targeted number of Sudanese who will be flown on an Egyptian airliner is around 600,” Major General Beshir Ahmed Beshir, who chairs a committee formed to receive the deportees, told AFP.

A Sudanese diplomatic source, meanwhile, said the death toll among the refugees after the violent clashes on Friday with security forces outside the Cairo offices of the UN refugee agency UNHCR had increased to 27.

The dead include 12 children, eight women and seven men, a spokesman for Sudan’s embassy in Cairo told AFP. The toll rose after more people died of their injuries in hospitals across the city.

Egyptian officials said that only individuals whose asylum requests the UNHCR has rejected and do not have legal residence in Egypt will be expelled.

Human rights groups have expressed concern for the safety of those being expelled, many of who lost their documents when Egyptian security forces stormed the park where they had been protesting for three months.

Sudan said it would welcome the deportees and refugees who wish to return home. Thousands of riot police last week forcibly broke-up the protest by Sudanese refugees.—AFP

Opinion

One year on

One year on

Governance by the ruling coalition has been underwhelming and marked by growing authoritarianism.

Editorial

Climate funding gap
Updated 17 Feb, 2025

Climate funding gap

Pakistan must boost its institutional capacity to develop bankable climate projects.
UN monitoring report
Updated 17 Feb, 2025

UN monitoring report

Pakistan must press Kabul diplomatically over its tolerance of TTP terrorism.
Tax policy reform
17 Feb, 2025

Tax policy reform

THE cabinet’s decision to create a Tax Policy Office at the finance ministry has raised hopes that tax policy is...
Maintaining balance
Updated 16 Feb, 2025

Maintaining balance

It must take a more proactive approach to establishing Pakistan’s bona fides.
Welcome return
16 Feb, 2025

Welcome return

IT is almost here; the moment Pakistan has long been waiting for — the first International Cricket Council...
Childhood trauma
16 Feb, 2025

Childhood trauma

BEING a child in this society should not be so hard. But recurrent reports of child abuse — from burying girl...