Les forces de police égyptiennes ont découvert dimanche 15 corps sans vie de personnes supposées être des ressortissants africains tentant de gagner Israël illégalement, a-t-on appris de source sécuritaire au Caire.
Les victimes ont été tuées par balles au sud de la ville égyptienne de Rafah, près de la frontière avec la bande de Gaza palestinienne et Israël, ont précisé les mêmes sources.
Les policiers égyptiens ont également découverts 8 autres personnes blessées qu'elles ont transportées à l'hôpital d'Arish où elles ont été mises à la disposition du Parquet général.
Les nationalités des victimes et les auteurs des tirs de feu n'ont pas encore été connus.
Pendant ce temps, d'autres sources d'information dans le nord Sinaï (Egypte) ont rapporté que les forces de l'ordre égyptiennes ont appréhendé un groupe de 19 migrants clandestins africains dans la zone de Lahfan, au sud d'Arish.
Les membres du groupe ont reconnu qu'ils tentaient de gagner clandestinement le territoire israélien à travers cette zone frontalière.
Les frontières-est de l'Egypte connaissent depuis quelques années des cas d'infiltration de migrants africains cherchant à trouver du travail en Israël.
L'Armée égyptienne mène des opérations dans cette région contre des « groupes terroristes », notamment celui de la wilaya du Sinaï qui a proclamé, il y a quelques mois, son allégeance à l'organisation de l'Etat Islamique (DAECH).
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En Novembre, 2015 (17:55 PM)Immigreeeeeeeeeeanonyme
En Novembre, 2015 (21:59 PM)Boydkr
En Novembre, 2015 (00:13 AM)At least 15 Sudanese refugees have been shot dead and eight more injured in Egypt's Sinai region as they reportedly attempted to enter Israel.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, Egyptian security officials told the Associated Press that the refugees were killed while caught in the crossfire between security forces and people smugglers on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, however, officials said that security forces had shot the Sudanese as they approached the border fence separating the Sinai and southern Israel.
Most of the people being smuggled through the Sinai are fleeing political violence in Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia, among other countries - risking their lives to make the perilous journey to seek asylum in Israel.
Many have been shot, sometimes fatally, by security forces, while others have been tortured by Egyptian and Sudanese human traffickers, according to human rights groups.
RELATED: Eritreans escape to torturous Sinai
Gerry Simpson, a researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said that Sunday's "tragic killings are nothing new".
"Egypt has a record of shooting unarmed sub-Saharan African refugees as they approach Israel's border," he told Al Jazeera.
"We call on Egypt to end this policy of shooting unarmed and investigate those who are responsible for these deaths."
'Rape, burning and mutilation'
But security forces are not the only threat faced by those passing through the Sinai. In a February 2014 report, HRW documented systematic abuse by human traffickers.
The report said that "Egyptian traffickers have tortured Eritreans for ransom in the Sinai Peninsula, including through rape, burning, and mutilation".
Mutasim Ali, director of the Tel Aviv-based African Refugee Development Centre (ARDC), made the month-long journey from Darfur to Israel in 2009.
"These killings don't surprise me," he told Al Jazeera regarding Sunday's deadly incident. "It happens a lot."
RELATED: Trafficked Eritreans' long road to recovery
"It is not so different than refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea," Ali added. "People risk their lives with the hope to survive."
Since refugees and asylum seekers began coming to Israel in 2005, their numbers have swelled to an estimated 45,000.
Yet, Israel rarely grants asylum to those who request it, instead classifying them as economic migrants and trying to "coerce" them into leaving the country, according to a September 2014 HRW report.
Once in Israel, asylum seekers do not face the "systematic physical attacks", according to Ali.
But they can be detained for lengthy periods and "are subjected to incitement, hatred and racism on a daily basis", he added.
'Racial incitement'
Israel recently started forcibly deporting Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers to Uganda and Rwanda.
In the country's Negev region, Israeli authorities can hold any Eritrean or Sudanese male asylum seeker without charges in the Holot detention centre for up to one year .
Ali pointed to former Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who back in August speculated that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) could potentially recruit asylum seekers to carry out attacks in Israel.
RELATED: Israel turns up the heat on African migrants
"It is not unrealistic that [ISIL] and other terrorist groups operating in Sinai would take advantage of [the migrants'] distress to recruit them," Erdan said at the time.
Ali said comments like this "are racial incitement".
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