Controversy over decision to expel Sudanese

ISRAEL yesterday said it would expel refugees from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, touching off hot debate over whether the Jewish state, founded after the Nazi genocide, has a duty to take in people fleeing persecution.

Israel has been grappling for months with how to deal with a swelling flow of Africans, including some from Darfur, who have crossed its porous southern border with Egypt’s Sinai desert. Overnight, Israel returned 48 Africans to Egypt.

Israeli government spokesman David Baker said he did not know if any were from Darfur, but that Darfurians would not be immune from Israel’s ban on unauthorised migrants.

“The policy of returning back anyone who enters Israel illegally will pertain to everyone, including those from Darfur,” he said.

Egyptian police said Darfurians were among the 48 — and would be expelled from Egypt to Sudan.

That the refugees are from Sudan further complicates matters, because Israeli law denies asylum to anyone from an enemy state. Sudan’s Muslim government is hostile to Israel and has no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.

The decision to turn back Darfurians contradicts Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s pledge earlier this summer to absorb them.