CAIRO, Jan 3: Egypt plans to expel 645 Sudanese, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday, despite contrary assurances to the United Nations’ refugee agency following the killing of at least 27 refugees last week when police broke up a protest.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Fatma el Zahraa Etman said the Sudanese would be repatriated by boat on Thursday, adding that Egypt had the right to remove illegal immigrants and those who break Egyptian law.

“There are 645 Sudanese who are going to go back to Sudan. They are leaving by boat on Thursday ... They may be illegal immigrants. Why should we send a refugee back? If they have broken the law of the host country,” she said

Earlier in the day the United Nations’ refugee agency said it had received assurances from Egypt that Sudanese asylum seekers would not be deported to Sudan.

“We have no confirmation. Our representative was at a meeting at 2pm with the ministry of foreign affairs and nothing was mentioned,” said UN High Comissionner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokeswoman Astrid van Genderen Stort.

“In general a refugee has the same rights and obligations as every other citizen and people who have broken the law have the right to undergo due process,” she told Reuters.

Last Friday, Egyptian police used sticks and water cannons to move up to 3,500 refugees who had been protesting at a squalid camp outside UN offices in an affluent Cairo district, killing at least 27.

Some had been there for three months, demanding resettlement in the West.

Talks between the Sudanese and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to end the protest broke down on Dec 22, after the protesters rejected a deal signed by protest leaders with the UNHCR.—Reuters