Eritreans jailed in Egypt fear going home

(SomaliNet) Egypt began mass deportations of detained Eritrean asylum seekers to Eritrean capiatl Asmara this week and plans to forcibly return hundreds more in a move which Amnesty said puts them at serious risk of torture. However, the Eritreans fear going home

\"I don\'t want to live if I have to go back to Eritrea. I know what is waiting for me there,\" said one who gave his name as Ammanuel.

\"We came as refugees. If we go back to Eritrea, we may be killed,\" he said from his jail cell in Ras Gharib on the Gulf of Suez, where he said he was being held with 64 other Eritreans.

Activists say the returns appeared to be the largest mass deportations of asylum seekers from Egypt in decades. There was no immediate comment from Egyptian or Eritrean authorities.

Egypt, facing a surge of Eritrean arrivals in recent months, is under pressure to staunch the flow of African migrants over its sensitive Sinai border into Israel, Amnesty says. Police have shot dead 13 migrants at the border this year.

Egyptian security sources confirmed some Eritreans had been deported and that authorities planned to deport hundreds more, saying the migrants had planned to smuggle themselves to Israel.

Amnesty said 500 had already been flown to Eritrea since Wednesday after being denied access for months to representatives of the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.

Amnesty said more flights appeared to have been scheduled to deport 1,100 remaining detained Eritreans and more deportations could take place on Saturday. It said Eritreans already deported had pleaded to stay in Egypt and threatened suicide.

\"The asylum seekers didn\'t physically resist being put on the airplane but continued to cry and beg,\" Amnesty said. It says returned asylum seekers were likely to be detained in inhumane conditions for weeks or years and risked torture.

Eritreans, including families with children, held in the Red Sea town of Hurghada said they saw deportation as imminent.

\"Yesterday they came to check our names. It seems they will take us by tonight,\" one said from inside the jail. \"They are getting ready.\"

UNHCR said Egypt had cut access to detained Eritreans in February, leaving it unable to assess any asylum claims. It said it was \"extremely concerned\" about possible deportations.

Eritreans arriving in recent months include Pentecostal Christians fleeing religious persecution and others trying to avoid military conscription, activists say.

UNHCR said some Eritreans appeared to have been drawn to Egypt in hope of reaching Israel, but also cited a deteriorating human rights situation in Eritrea.-Reuters