Do NOT send the Sudanese refugees back to Egypt
Dear Prime Minister Ehud Olmert , We are asking you NOT to send the Sudanese refugees in Israel back to Egypt. Egypt is a country that is known for expelling refugees back to their country of origin. For refugees who escaped the genocide in Darfur this would be a death sentence. We hope you do not intend to send any Darfur refugees away. This would be immoral and unthinkable. As for the other Sudanese refugees, we ask for them not to be sent back to Egypt for two reasons: - Firstly, there is the probability that Egypt will send them back to Sudan. Sudanese people who have spent time in Israel might be accused of collaborating with Israel, and are in real danger of imprisonment, torture and death. - Secondly is the cruel and inhumane way in which Sudanese refugees are treated in Egypt. The best example of that is the December 2005 demonstration in Cairo. The first refugees who escaped to Israel came here after that horrific demonstration. In the dispersal of this peaceful demonstration of Sudanese who were protesting for their basic human rights, the Egyptian police killed tens of refugees, including women and children. Some of the refugees who escaped to Israel have lost their loved ones in that demonstration. It would be inhumane to send them back to Egypt where they have gone through such a horrible trauma. It is our humane and moral responsibility to embrace these refugees. We must remember that we ourselves were refugees not so long ago. With thanks, The undersigned
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