UN rights boss urges Egypt to stop shooting migrants

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations' human rights chief accused Egypt on Tuesday of shooting unarmed African migrants trying to enter Israel via the Sinai Desert and said 60 of them had been killed since July 2007.

Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for Cairo to urgently launch an independent and credible inquiry into what could be a "shoot-to-kill policy" by some Egyptian security forces.

"While migrants often lose their lives accidentally when travelling in over-crowded boats, or trying to cross remote land borders, I know of no other country where so many unarmed migrants and asylum seekers appear to have been deliberately killed in this way by government forces," Pillay said.

Egyptian police have killed nine migrants this year, including an African man at the weekend, while at least 19 were killed last year. Dozens more have been wounded or have disappeared, according to her statement.

The victims, who include several women and at least one child, were all on the Egyptian side of the Sinai border with Israel.

The great majority killed since Egypt and Israel agreed to toughen border controls in the Sinai in July 2007 are from sub-Saharan Africa; mainly Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia.

"The sheer number of victims suggests that at least some Egyptian security officials have been operating a shoot-to-kill policy. It is unlikely that so many killings would occur otherwise. Sixty killings can hardly be an accident," said Pillay, a former U.N. war crimes judge from South Africa.

Shootings stopped in the first half of 2009, and then resumed, strongly suggesting a pattern, she said. The fact that it was a highly sensitive border and a restricted military zone was "no excuse".