September 19, 2002
OPEN LETTER TO THE UNHCR: PLIGH T OF ETHIOPIAN REFUGEES IN EGYPT
As we get reports of the double standards used by the UNHCR in the Sudan to screen Ethiopian refugees SOCEPP has received an alarm call from Ethiopian refugees in Egypt who claim that the Egyptian authorities are not only mistreating them but deporting quite a few of them back to Ethiopia. The violent deportation of Ethiopian refugees in Egypt has been reported by many quarters.
It is sad to note once again that the local UNHCR has failed to give protection to the Ethiopian refugees. This failure on the part of the UNHCR to give adequate protection to Ethiopian refugees is becoming routine as the situations in the Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti amply show. This SOCEPP open letter, one of many, is necessitated by the need to call on the UNHCR to protect Ethiopian refugees in the region and this time in Egypt. SOCEPP also calls on the government of Egypt to rein in its officials who are violating the rights of Ethiopian refugees, jailing an beating them, denying them asylum and deporting them.
SOCEPP calls on human rights organizations and Ethiopians abroad to raise their voices against the injustice being meted out to Ethiopian refugees in Egypt.
Address your protests to:
* H.E The President of Egypt -
SOCEPP
