Eight Eritreans were expelled in October after being in detention for two years without due legal process or access to the UNHCR; another 12 are thought to be at imminent risk.
EgyptAir flight MS833 took off from Cairo on Oct. 31 at 10:40 p.m., heading for Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. On board the plane were eight Eritrean refugees of the same family and between the ages of three and 70 who, despite the risk of being detained, ill-treated and tortured upon arrival, were forcibly deported by the Egyptian authorities.
According to a source at the independent Refugees Platform in Egypt, the eight refugees had been held at al-Qusayr police department, in the Red Sea Security Directorate, since December 2019, two months after being arrested for entering Egypt from Sudan irregularly. The group was held without legal basis, as they were not presented to any official investigation body, and they were not allowed to have access to a lawyer or to the local office of the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, the same source said. Five of the deportees also have chronic diseases that require medicine and surgery, the Refugees Platform in Egypt stated.
