http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-egypt-migrants-shooting-20151115-story.html
African migrants en route to Israel fired on in Sinai; 15 reported dead
Amro Hassan and Batsheva Sobelman
Fifteen African migrants were shot to death Sunday in Egypt’s Sinai
Peninsula while trying to reach Israel, a hospital official said.
The official in the northern Sinai city of El Arish, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the
media, said eight other migrants were wounded, adding that all the
dead and injured were believed to be Sudanese.
Citing security officials as well as hospital personnel, the
Associated Press reported that the migrants were caught in the
crossfire during a gun battle between Egyptian security forces and
smugglers.
A representative of the Egyptian Health Ministry in northern Sinai
said the slain migrants were shot at dawn south of the town of Rafah,
adding that the wounded Africans were in serious condition. The
Interior Ministry did not immediately issue an official statement on
the clash.
Israeli media reported that a similar incident occurred early this
month, when Egyptian forces opened fire on a group of 28 asylum
seekers, apparently all Sudanese, who were trying to cross the border
into Israel. One migrant was killed and five others were wounded
before the group made its way into Israel.
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In recent years the Sinai has become a favored route for African
refugees seeking to migrate to Israel, often after paying human
smugglers to guide their journey. Migrants crossing the desert risk
not only becoming caught in clashes between their smugglers and
security forces, but also are traveling through an area where the
Egyptian army and police are fighting Islamic insurgents.
In addition, migrants risk abuse at the hands of both Bedouin tribes
involved in the human smuggling business and police, according to a
report last year by Human Rights Watch, the activist group.
Those migrants who reach Israel are far from welcome.
For nearly a decade, the Israelis have grappled with illegal migration
from Africa. A barrier erected along its 150-mile border with Egypt in
2013 has largely stemmed the flow of asylum seekers smuggled through
the Sinai Peninsula, but the government remains challenged by as many
as 50,000 migrants already in the country.
The Israeli government regards the non-Jewish migrants as infiltrators
and a social time-bomb upsetting the country’s delicate demographic
balance. Very few migrants have been granted official status, though
Israel follows the international practice of not returning migrants to
the troubled nations of Eritrea and Sudan, from which most arriving in
Israel originate.
Over the years the government has taken various measures to discourage
the migrants from staying, putting up obstacles to legal employment
and housing and building Holot, a holding facility for illegal
migrants in a remote desert location.
The original legislation allowing the government to detain migrants in
Holot for three years was overturned by the Supreme Court, which ruled
it unconstitutional. Subsequent legislation was nixed twice.
In August, the Supreme Court ruled that newly arrived migrants may be
jailed for three months and ordered the state to release all those
held at Holot for over a year at once.
In the past, Israel has tried to encourage what the government called
voluntary departures in return for a one-time grant of several
thousand dollars. According to rights organizations, about 9,000
asylum seekers have left Israel in the past few years.
Israeli authorities say agreements have been reached with third
countries to take in the migrants from Eritrea and Sudan but have not
made public the details. Last week, a court upheld the government’s
right to jail those migrants who refuse to leave.
Last month, an Eritrean asylum seeker mistaken for a gunman during a
shooting attack in Beersheba died after being shot by a security guard
and then lynched by an angry crowd of Israelis.
Special correspondents Hassan reported from Cairo and Sobelman from Jerusalem.
Received on Sun Nov 15 2015 - 21:55:04 EST