Israel expels 42 Iraqi Kurds who asked for asylum

by Jalal Bana
Courtesy of Ha'aretz
Aug 10, 2001

Israeli troops guarding the border with Lebanon got a shock yesterday when a group of 42
Iraqi Kurds, including women and children, crossed the frontier, asking for asylum in Israel. 

Israel turned down the request and after a few hours inside the country, the group was put on
a bus and taken to the Rosh Hanikra border, where they were handed over to UNIFIL troops. 

Lt. Col. Raz Saguy, the Israeli commander in the area, said he fired a shot in the air as the
group approached the border near Kafr Rajar and began climbing the fence. 

However, he said, when he saw that the infiltrators, mostly women and children, were
unarmed, he allowed them to cross. 
 

The youngest member of the group was a 3-month-old baby. Troops held the asylum seekers
under guard beside the border, while Israeli authorities made arrangements with UN officials
in Lebanon for the group's return. 

Then the refugees were put on a bus, given food and water, and driven to the UN border
checkpoint in Naqoura, just inside Lebanon. 

The asylum seekers told soldiers they reached Lebanon from Iraq through Syria, looking for
work, and could not return to Lebanon for fear that Hezbollah guerrillas would kill them for
seeking help from Israel. 

In March, 15 Kurdish refugees who infiltrated from Lebanon into Israel were returned to
Lebanon a day later. 
 

While the Kurdish group was here yesterday, Physicians for Human Rights, the international
human rights group active in Israel, called on Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Defense
Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer to let the Kurds make a formal request for asylum, but they
turned the group down. 

The human rights group said "we are saddened and worried by the fact Israel has hurt
defenseless people, in violation of international law."
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