Egypt has a problem; it continues to deploy merciless killers to protect its borders. On Monday, three Eritreans were shot dead on the southern border with Sudan as they attempted to cross into Egypt illegally. In total, some 35 Eritrean nationals attempted to cross the border in the southern governorate of Aswan and were chased by the security forces and shot at. Five other Eritreans suffered various injuries during the attack and the authorities arrested the remaining members of the group, including children and 9 women. Tens of desperate African migrants are abhorrently shot dead by the hands of the Egyptian border security every year. Their crime: attempting to cross the border looking for a better life. The shoot-to-stop policy that Egypt has deployed for years to halt illegal crossing into Israel, was mainly out of pressure from the latter. Every year, thousands of migrants fleeing bloody conflicts and poverty attempt to cross the border from Egypt into Israel, most often from African countries. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attempts at a better life in Israel “a danger to Israel's Jewish character.” Israel announced the construction of a 240-kilometer barrier along its southwestern border with Egypt in 2010, aimed at stopping the despairing migrants from crossing into Israel. Egyptian border guards have killed at least 85 African migrants since July 2007, according to a 2010 Human Rights Watch report. Those who survived the shooting, wounded or not, were tried by military courts and forcibly returned home in violation of international treaties that ban such actions in fear of inflicting serious harm and further persecution on the migrants. The government did not prosecute any of the shooters nor did it investigate any of the killings, nor will it. Authorities have arrested and detained thousands Africans migrants attempting to cross the border, tried them in military courts, handed them a jail sentences and deported them. The followed policy during the past three decades was to charge illegal migrants with criminal violations and then detain them in criminal prisons in unimaginable conditions, with no access to legal or medical assistance. Not only this, but police also subjected them to “medical tests.” This is how they dealt with the issue. Women and children are not exempt and the shoot-to-stop policy sees no gender or age. In February 2009, Egyptian border guards shot and killed a 30-year-old Eritrean woman attempting to cross into Israel. The soldiers chased the woman, who tried in despair to jump over the barbed-wire border marking. The soldiers immediately opened fire and killed her; a bullet to the head. They shot her in front of her 8- and 10-year-old daughters. After watching their mother shot to death, the two children were arrested. In March of the same year, police forces arrested 70 Eritreans in the south, near the Sudan border, subjected them to medical examinations, and announced plans to refer them to a “special court.” If this is not the definition of racism, I don't know what is. By May 2009, one the bloodiest years of the border killings, Egypt held at least 400 Eritreans in prisons around the country. By August, authorities had arrested nearly 600 trying to cross the Egypt-Israel border and killed at least 19 of them. Egypt is party to the 1951 the Status of Refugees Convention. Its 1967 Protocol, and the 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa. The 1971 Constitution, which is now void, guaranteed the right of asylum “for every foreigner persecuted for defending the people's interests, human rights, peace, or justice.” No word was put out on whether the new constitution will guarantee the same rights for refugees or will it put a stop to the border killings. Local and international rights groups say that in addition to the shoot-to-stop policy, Egypt has continued denying arrested migrants access to legal representation or appeal, forced thousands of Eritreans back home to face persecution and prevented UNHCR and other rights groups working with migrants and refugees access to detainees. “Egypt has every right to manage its borders, but using routine lethal force against unarmed migrants – and potential asylum seekers – would be a serious violation of the right to life,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “These individuals appeared to post no threat to the lives of the border guards or anyone else. Attempted border crossings are not a capital offense.” It's time for a change, and an end to the murder of Africans in the name of security.
