A Refugee Problem You Probably Haven’t Heard About

Many refugees have fled the violence in Sudan for other African countries, including Egypt. Some of those refugees have found their way to Israel:

Anthony Peter, 36, fled his home in southern Sudan after losing his parents to the violence there. Carrying a single suitcase, he sought asylum in Egypt, where he hoped to create a new life for his family. Several weeks ago he snuck into Israel with his family.
“I would rather that the Israeli government shoot me here, in a clean, humane way, than send me back to Egypt. To send me, and my children, and my wife back there is to sentence us to a cruel and violent death,” Peter said.
“*** My life in Egypt was even more dangerous than my life in Sudan had been. Our lives were even more at risk and we were outsiders who everyone could identify and threaten.” Peter said he had seen other Sudanese refugees beaten, raped, and killed by Nubian gangs operating in the refugee camps.
So Peter decided to take a gamble on Israel, a place he had only heard of as a “land of Jews.”
“The only thing I knew about Jews was what I heard about them in Egypt – that they were evil, that they drank blood and were killers and very cruel,” said Peter. “I thought though, that the people telling me this were also killers, so why should I believe them?”

Peter paid to have himself and his family smuggled over the border by a group of Bedouins. He joined a considerable number of Sudanese who have fled Egypt for safety in Israel. The Israeli government wants to send them back, unless they can make a specific showing of “perilous danger.” Ironically, this decision has been condemned by humanitarian groups:

The decision to return the refugees to Egypt was slammed by officials from Amnesty International and the United Nations.

Poor Israel! Its status as the only “human rights violator” the U.N. cares about is truly unique. It gets condemned for returning refugees to Egypt; while, on the other hand, Egypt has not been condemned for the actions that caused them to flee in the first place. On the contrary: in May, the U.N.’s General Assembly elected Egypt to a seat on its Human Rights Council. More on that later.
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