Word: borderer
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...would be considered "enemy nationals" and could face up to seven years in prison. "Israel is trying to make the country appear inhospitable to dissuade another mass flow of asylum seekers from Egypt," says Rozen. On Dec. 8, Israeli media reported government plans to build a wall along the border, specifically to keep African migrants out. (See the top 10 news stories of the year...
...Egypt, the response can be more immediate. Nongovernmental organizations such as the Hotline for Migrant Workers and the African Refugee Development Center say that Egyptian border police have shot dead several hundred migrants seeking to cross the border into Israel for work and asylum over the past few years. "From both Israeli soldiers and refugees who crossed the border we can tell for sure that the Egyptians almost always shoot, they shoot to kill and very often they hit the asylum seekers," says Sigal Rozen of Hotline, an independent group that helps asylum seekers in Israel. At the Israeli cemetery...
...Egyptian officials say security concerns justify their actions. They claim Islamist militants and drug smugglers use the same routes and that bedouin passers, whom the asylum seekers pay to smuggle them to Israel, sometimes fire at the border guards. Cairo has also come under pressure from the Israeli government to halt the increasing number of migrants crossing the border. Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki says Cairo is doing everything it can to strike a balance between the humane treatment of the asylum seekers and the protection of its borders. "This is a vast desert area, manned by fewer troops...
...David Gilinski, an Israeli soldier who patrols the border area near Israel's Ketsiot camp, where refugees are held for several months after entering the country, says the shooting is routine. "Our job at the border is to prevent illegal arms and drugs entering Israel, but most of the time we end up dealing with refugees, even though that's not the army's job," he tells TIME. "During heated periods, we hear shots fired three, four times per week," Gilinski says. "Out of groups of maybe 10, only one or two get through the border. The others are shot...
...ordeal is not over even when refugees make it to Israel. Sigal Rozen says Israel operates an unofficial "hot return" procedure, under which it deports asylum seekers to Egypt provided they crossed within a certain area of the border. Rozen says this policy is illegal by international law "as Israel receives no guarantee that these people will be treated humanely on the other side...