Israel starts to deport Sudanese refugees to Egypt

Israel starts to deport Sudanese refugees to Egypt Israel on Sunday returned to Egypt 50 Sudanese refugees who had entered the country illegally the previous day, a senior official said.  "These Sudanese were handed over to the Egyptian authorities in accordance with an accelerated deportation procedure," a senior official in the office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told AFP.   Israel said the transfer was the start of the return of thousands of Africans who have infiltrated the country in recent years through the Egyptian border.   African refugees trying to enter Israel illegally through its 250-kilometer border with Egypt are caught nearly every day. More than 220 Africans, mostly Sudanese from the war-torn Darfur region, were detained last month alone while trying to cross the frontier, Egyptian officials have said.   In an  effort to counter the influx, Israel has said people entering the country illegally from Egypt will be deported. But it has also said it would help "a small number" of asylum-seekers from Darfur. Egyptian security confirmed late Saturday that Israel sent back 48 Africans, most of them Sudanese, across the border with Egypt.   According to United Nations figures, there are currently 1,200 refugees from Sudan in Israel, among them 300 from Darfur region.

Egyptian police kill Sudanese woman trying to enter Israel Egyptian police shot and killed a Sudanese woman and seriously injured four others Sunday on the Sinai Peninsula as they tried to sneak into Israel, a local police officer said.   Many refugees trying to enter Israel from Egypt have been detained, and some hurt, by police, but Haja Abbas Haroun's death was the first of its kindHaroun, 28, died instantly by police gunfire, while four others, including a woman and young girl, were critically injured and taken to a local hospital, said Capt. Mohammed Badr of the northern Sinai police force. The border guards detained 22 refugees with Haroun who were also seeking political asylum in Israel, Badr added, according to the AP. Eighteen from the group, including Haroun and three of the wounded, were from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. The rest were from Eritrea and the Ivory Coast, the home country of the fourth person injured. The incident took place in the central Sinai town of Al-Aouja, some 62 miles south of Rafah.   According to Badr, the individuals had paid thousands of dollars to smugglers to get into Israel, but the traffickers left the group near the border and fled just minutes before police arrived.