Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — Egypt and Israel have joined their militaries to prevent
the flow of African migrants.

Human rights activists said Egypt’s military was coordinating to stop
Eritrean and Sudanese migrants from crossing the border into Israel. They
said the Egyptian Army allowed Israeli troops to capture the migrants in the
Sinai Peninsula before they reached the border of the Jewish state.

“They are entering Egypt, detaining individuals as they make their way to seek asylum in Israel, and then handing them over to the Egyptian security forces,” a statement by several Israeli non-government organizations said.

The Aug. 10 statement, including Amnesty International Israel, said the coordination represented a new policy by Israel to stop the infiltration by tens of thousands of African migrants. The human rights groups said Israel Army units welcomed the Eritreans and Sudanese with food and water, and later handed them over to Egypt.

An unidentified Israeli reservist said the policy called for Israel Army
units to establish positions several hundred meters inside Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The reservist said in an affidavit in June that the units were ordered to act friendly to the migrants and later hand them over to Egyptian police.

In one case, the affidavit said, 40 Africans were returned from Israel
to an Egyptian police station in northern Sinai. The statement said this
would constitute a violation of international law, which bans one country
from forcibly taking people to another country where they could undergo
abuse or torture.

“Israel is responsible for the action or omissions of its soldiers,
whether they are located in Israeli or Egyptian territory,” the statement
said.

Israel has reported a sharp drop in infiltration by African migrants. In
July, 248 people infiltrated Israel from Sinai, a decrease of nearly
10-fold from earlier this year.

A military statement confirmed Israeli-Egyptian cooperation against the
migrants. On Aug. 10, the Israeli military said migrants have been stopped
before they entered the Jewish state and were detained by Egypt.

“In recent weeks, units from the Israel Defense Forces stopped the entry
of infiltrators caught trying to illegally enter Israel, until Egyptian
forces were able to come and take them,” the military said.

  Amnesty International, Egypt agree: Coordinating to stop influx of African migrants, Eritrean and Sudanese migrants crossing border into Israel, Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Sinai Peninsula