A refugee from Darfur in Sudan, explains how he risked everything trying to move to Israel

• Increasingly Sudanese, Ethiopians and Eritreans travel directly to Israel's border after arriving in Egypt.

• Israel says the arrival of almost 15,000 refugees and asylum-seekers has put strain on security and welfare systems.

• Israel always accuses Egypt of not playing an active role to prevent smuggling and illegal immigrants entering Israeli land.

The Africans risking all on the Egypt-Israel border
Report from BBC News online at 10:10 GMT, Sunday, 6 June 2010 11:10 UK
By Yolande Knell, BBC News, Cairo:

Motorised rickshaws wind their way through the crowded alleyways of Ard al-Lawa as street vendors call out their wares.

This poor Cairo neighbourhood is home to an increasing number of African migrants and refugees, but many do not want to stay.

In his sparsely decorated apartment, Yahya Mohamed Idris, a refugee from Darfur in Sudan, explains how he risked everything trying to move to Israel.

"I decided to go to Israel because people who went before told me the situation was much better over there," he says.

"I left my country looking for safety and security but in Egypt I found harassment and more problems.

"Work here is difficult and they throw stones and tomatoes at me on the street. They curse at me and call me 'the black'."

Quickly spotted

Like hundreds of others each month, Idris, 31, paid Bedouin people-smugglers to take him and his family on the risky journey to the Egypt-Israel border.

It costs more than $600 (£414) travelling by bus and then hidden on a lorry. Finally, they were left in the Sinai desert late at night.

Egyptian forces quickly spotted them.

"While we were crossing the border they opened fire," Idris recalls.

"We surrendered and sat on the ground and they started beating us and shooting all around. My wife fainted and the kids were screaming."

Idris was arrested and imprisoned for a year. Since his release several months ago, he has been unable to find his wife and two children.

For others, the situation is even worse.

At least 16 sub-Saharan African refugees and migrants have been shot dead at the border this year. Many others suffered injuries.

Warnings ignored

"This is a common problem. When people try to cross the border to Israel, the Egyptian security shoot and kill them," comments Abdalla Hanzal, who works with a refugee support group.

"Sometimes when they do not shoot them, they arrest them and deport them. Our centre tries to report when someone's deported or put in prison."

Egyptian officials insist they only shoot at the border after those crossing ignore repeated orders to stop and point out that human-trafficking gangs carry guns.

However, the United Nations and human rights groups have asked Egypt to stop excessive force being used.

There was also criticism of a recent statement by Egypt's Foreign Ministry which pointed out that the fatalities "did not exceed 2% in 2008 and 4% in 2009 of the total number of illegal crossers".

The regional representative of the UN refugee agency, Mohamed Dayri, is hoping new policies are in the works.

"We have recently initiated a discussion with the government to provide Egypt with a set of measures and concrete proposals on humanitarian grounds how to manage this issue of the illegal crossing to Israel from Egypt," he states.

'Hot return'

For now though the problem seems to be growing.

A deal struck between Libya and Italy in 2009 has cut off a popular sea route to Europe for illegal African migrants and helped direct the flow towards Israel, which is seen as offering better work opportunities and more Western standards.

Increasingly Sudanese, Ethiopians and Eritreans travel directly to the border after arriving in Egypt.

Israel says the arrival of almost 15,000 refugees and asylum-seekers has put strain on security and welfare systems.

It introduced a controversial policy of "hot-returns", immediately returning migrants back across the border.

"Israel always accuses Egypt of not playing an active role to prevent smuggling and illegal immigrants entering Israeli land," says Emad Gad, an expert on Israel at the Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo.

He points out that forces are limited in this politically sensitive area under the terms of the 1979 peace deal with Israel.

"According to the peace treaty Egypt is allowed to deploy only 450 soldiers. After 2007, they increased the number to 750," he says.

"But if we speak about a border of over 240km (149 miles), it's not enough to secure it."

In January, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans to erect a barrier along part of the border and install surveillance equipment to keep out illegal migrants and militants.

However, back in the busy market of Ard al-Lawa, Idris remains undeterred. He has not stopped dreaming of a new beginning in Israel.

"If I had my wife and kids, I would go through this nightmare again. When I'm older, I want to have a good life."

"If I could find a way to Italy or Canada I would go there but as far as I know this is the closest border we can reach. I only know how to get to Israel."

Egypt: Darkness at noon clouds Cairo skies

From Norwegian Council for Africa, 10 December 2009:
Egypt: Darkness at noon clouds Cairo skies
Inter Press Service (IPS)/International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ)

Cairo (Egypt) — For the last decade, the autumn skies over Egypt - especially over capital Cairo, have been overshadowed by a thick haze people call "the black cloud".

The black cloud first appeared in 1998, ironically after the creation of Egypt's ministry of environment. Three environment ministers since then have failed to solve the problem, which manifests itself in an ugly pall of haze from dusk until dawn between mid-October and December.

This year has been no exception.

"Black cloud covers Cairo-Alexandria highway...resulting in an increase in the number of road accidents owing to decreased visibility," independent daily Al-Dustour reports. A headline in independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reads: "The black cloud covers Cairo, (as well as urban governorates) Qalioubiya and Helwan."

The cloud has direct health effects. In mid-October, independent weekly Youm Al-Sabaa reported some 300 daily cases of respiratory problems in the Nile delta province Gharbiya as a result of the cloud.

The weekly quoted Mohamed Ibrahim, member of the government-run National Councils of Specialists as saying that the appearance of the black cloud had become "a seasonal phenomenon."

Ever since it first appeared, the government has blamed it on widespread burning of rice straw on the outskirts of Cairo and in the countryside. This is an annual practice among farmers during the autumn rice harvesting season.

Minister of state for environmental affairs Maged George says the burning of rice straw accounts for more than 50 percent of all air pollution in Egypt.

"Farmers aren't adhering to established quotas for rice burning every year," George said. He stressed the need for to financial penalties and even arrest in order to deter anyone who threatened the environment through agricultural or industrial practices.

The governor of Gharbiya province says 1,031 farmers have so far been charged by the authorities with burning excess rice straw. Each faces fines ranging between 5,000 and 100,000 Egyptian pounds (930 to 18,600 dollars) each.

A handful of public-private projects, some in cooperation with international development agencies, have sought to eliminate the practice by encouraging farmers to recycle straw for other uses. Under one such initiative, farmers are paid roughly 45 Egyptian pounds (8.40 dollars) per ton of straw they turn in at designated collection centres. The straw, along with other forms of agricultural waste, is then recycled into fertiliser.

But many experts say such initiatives - while a step in the right direction - are far from adequate.

"There's far more rice straw than can be processed by these recycling facilities, which are only available in three or four provinces," Ahmed Abdel- Wahab, professor of environment at Benha University told IPS. "Meanwhile, the cost of transporting the straw to recycling centres usually ends up being more than what farmers receive for it."

What's more, while environmentalists laud the notion of recycling, they point out that the government tends to focus - unfairly, they say - on the rice- straw burning while overlooking other causes of the cloud.

"The cloud will continue as long as the government insists on ignoring its real causes and concentrates solely on rice farmers as the usual suspects," Ibrahim said. "In greater Cairo at least, vehicle exhaust emissions, garbage burning and industrial pollution constitute the main causes of the phenomenon."

"The government is only focusing on the margins of the problem," Mohamed Nagi, head of the Cairo-based Hapi Centre for Environmental Rights tells IPS. "Most experts agree that the burning of rice straw represents only 12 percent of the cause of the cloud."

Abdel-Wahab agrees that automobile exhaust emissions and industrial pollution from factories are prime causes for the cloud.

"Every day, some two million cars hit the streets of greater Cairo, which is also surrounded by industrial factories, and both of these represent bigger pollutants than the straw burning," he said. "While straw burning certainly contributes to a rising carbon content in the air, vehicle emissions are just as much - if not more - to blame."

"The only reason that the cloud appears in the fall is the natural drop in temperature, which tends to trap accumulated air pollution close to the ground and make it visible to the eye," Abdel-Wahab added. "But the pollution is still there - just not as visible - during the rest of the year."

Nagi says that the rice farmers are being "unfairly accused of responsibility" for the cloud. "The environment ministry has taken some measures against straw burning, but it has failed to address any of the other root causes of the phenomenon."

Nagi pointed to two earlier government decisions - one to seize or fine automobiles with high exhaust emissions, and another to withdraw polluting factories from the capital. "Both of these decisions have yet to be implemented," he said.

Nagi says several government ministries - not just the one for the environment - are responsible for the lapses.

"It's not only the environment ministry that's to blame," he said. "The interior ministry is responsible for automobile emissions, the industry ministry for factories, and the agriculture ministry for farmers."

"The government lacks a consistent policy to fight air pollution in general, not just the black cloud," Nagi added. "Unfortunately, civil society - which should pressure Egyptian officialdom to lay out a clear plan to combat air pollution - has been no less negligent than the government in this regard."

Under such circumstances, local experts fear that the cloud is set to remain a seasonal occurrence for a long time to come.
"The black cloud, which represents a clear violation of the citizen's right to a healthy environment, is likely to stay with us for several more years," said Nagi.

Abdel-Wahab said that without a more effective environmental policy, "the black cloud will be around for at least another 20 years."