CAIRO: Egypt has expelled 600 Eritrean asylum seekers in a week, an Egyptian security official and a human rights activist said as the UN urged Cairo to stop the deportations.

“Six hundred asylum seekers have been sent back to Eritrea this week and 600 others are about to be expelled,” Mustafa Abul Hassan, of the Hisham Mubarak Centre human rights association said.

“We have told the Egyptian government that if they are expelled to Eritrea, they risk being arrested or tortured,” said Abul Hassan, who heads the centre’s Aswan office in southern Egypt.

An Egyptian security official speaking on condition of anonymity said that 400 Eritreans were expelled on Wednesday while 200 others were sent back to their country on June 11 and that some 600 others will be expelled “soon.”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has expressed alarm at the massive expulsions and urged Egypt to stop deporting asylum seekers from Eritrea, saying they could face great risks in their home country.

“People who could well be at risk in their home country should never be sent back before their asylum claims have been properly addressed,” Arbour said in a statement released earlier in Geneva.

—AFP