Israel to turn away Darfur refugees

JERUSALEM, Aug 19 (Reuters) Israel said today it would turn away refugees from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region but allow some 500 already in the country to remain, enforcing a policy aimed at halting illegal African migration via Egypt.

Responding to a persistent flow of illegal migrants through its porous border with its southern neighbour, Israel handed over 48 Sudanese to authorities in Egypt late yesterday, Egyptian security officials said.

An Israeli government official said Israel had received ''Egyptian commitments'' that refugees from Darfur would not be returned to Sudan.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in Darfur since non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing the Sudanese government in Khartoum of marginalising the region.

Israeli government spokesman David Baker put the number of Sudanese who were turned away yesterday at 50 and said it was Israel's policy ''that anyone entering illegally from Egypt will be returned to Egypt''.

Baker noted the Israeli government had agreed to allow 500 refugees from Darfur already in Israel ''to remain for humanitarian reasons''.

Asked what would happen from now on if a Darfur refugee was caught by Israel at the frontier, he said: ''He would be returned to Egypt.'' ENEMY NATIONALS Israel considers Sudanese refugees to be enemy nationals, partly because of Khartoum's hostility toward the Jewish state, and several dozen have been put in jail awaiting word of their fate.

Human rights groups say more than 2,000 illegal migrants from Africa have sneaked into Israel from Egypt over the past year seeking a better life. Eastern European prostitutes and drugs are also smuggled into Israel through the frontier.

Egypt has stepped up efforts to stop human trafficking on the border with Israel, a source of tension between the two countries.

Egyptian police shot at a group of African migrants trying to sneak into Israel in July, killing one woman and wounding four, including a child.

In June, Egyptian authorities arrested 106 Sudanese trying to cross into the Jewish state.

Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel in 1979, but a poll conducted by a government agency in 2006 found 92 per cent of Egyptians regard Israel as a hostile state.

''We can blame them (the Sudanese) but we should condemn the governments. Oppression and injustice made those people look for salvation even if it was in Israel,'' said Gamal Eid, head of Egypt's Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.

Activists say Sudanese refugees in Egypt face racism, police abuse and economic marginalisation.

REUTERS SBC PM2105