A group of 78 Eritreans being deported home from Libya hijacked their plane yesterday and diverted it to Khartoum in Sudan, where they surrendered, UN and Sudanese officials said. A senior Sudanese official said the specially chartered plane had taken off from the Libyan town of Khufrah and was heading for the Eritrean capital Asmara when the deportees seized control. Libya had denied them refugee status and they wanted to seek asylum in Sudan rather than returning home, the official said, adding: "The United Nations is dealing with this."
| Bet that causes all concerned to ooze confidence... |
A UN official in Khartoum said representatives of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees were at a meeting on the case.
Jean-Marie Fakhouri, regional operations director of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, told reporters in Geneva that UN officials had been called to Khartoum airport. "At one o'clock Geneva time (1100 GMT), the Eritreans actually surrendered to the authorities," he said. The plane, which had no other passengers apart from the Eritreans, was surrounded by police on landing, he added. The Eritrean government could not be reached for comment. UNHCR recommends that even failed asylum seekers are not forcibly returned to the country on the Horn of Africa. Human rights groups say hundreds of Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers have been forcibly sent home, where many face torture and detention without charge or trial. In its latest report on Eritrea, Amnesty International said Malta had sent home about 230 Eritreans in 2002 who were detained on arrival. It said women, children and the elderly were reportedly released but the remaining deportees had been tortured and held without charge in secret military detention centers. Government regulations forbid young Eritreans from leaving the country. |