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CAIRO-Egypt has deported 400 Eritrean asylum seekers back to Asmara and plans to forcibly return 1,200 more who are being held in detention in Egypt, putting them at serious risk of torture, Amnesty International said on Friday.The London-based human rights group said a first batch of 200 asylum seekers was flown back to Eritrea on Wednesday on a special Egyptair flight after being denied access for months to representatives from the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.Another 200 were flown to the Horn of Africa nation on Thursday night, and more flights appeared to have been scheduled to deport the remaining Eritreans, Amnesty said."Most asylum seekers returned to Eritrea are likely to be arbitrarily detained incommunicado in inhumane conditions from weeks to years ... They will be at serious risk of torture or other ill-treatment," Amnesty said."The asylum seekers knew they were being deported and started to beg the security forces not to deport them, and even threatened to kill themselves," Amnesty activist Mohamed Lotfy said, adding that women and children were among those deported.UNHCR said Egypt had cut off its access to detained Eritrean migrants in February, leaving it unable to assess any asylum claims. UNHCR was also unable to confirm any had been deported.But UNHCR said it was concerned for the fate of up to 1,600 mainly Eritrean migrants it believed were being held who had been caught slipping into the country either by land from Sudan or directly from Eritrea via the Red Sea."We remain seriously concerned about the situation, again, because the group includes women and children, said Abeer Etefa, a spokeswoman for UNHCR in Cairo. "Our office continues to request access."To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah....
