“The authorities should release the Syrian detainees unless they are promptly charged with a valid offense, and not deport Syrians with visas or asylum seekers without their claims being impartially reviewed.,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

According to HRW, On July 19 and 20, 2013, Egyptian police and military police arrested at least 72 Syrian men and nine boys at checkpoints on main roads in Cairo. Those who remain in custody, including registered asylum seekers and at least nine Syrians with valid visas or residence permits, have apparently not been charged with any offense.

The authorities have threatened to deport at least 14 of them to countries neighboring Syria, Human Rights Watch said.

“There is growing hostility in Egypt to the Syrians who fled there seeking refuge from the war,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “But a tense political climate is no excuse for police and army officers to pull dozens of Syrian men and boys off of public transport and throw them in jail without regard for their rights.”

Human Rights Watch expressed concern that Syrian asylum seekers may be deported without a fair examination of their asylum claims, as required by international law.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, in Egypt has registered, or is in the process of registering, some 90,000 asylum seekers from Syria.

Since the Egyptian military removed Mohammed Mursi from power on July 3, regulations governing Syrians’ entrance to Egypt have changed.

Since July 8, Syrians have been required to obtain entry visas and security clearance before they arrive in Egypt, a hardship for those fleeing fighting.

Arrests of Syrians living in Egypt have increased to levels that activists working with Syrian refugees in Cairo told Human Rights Watch were unprecedented. 

On July 10, Egyptian television presenters on local channels including Faraeen and OnTV began accusing the Syrian community of siding with Morsy supporters, fueling an atmosphere of mistrust and xenophobia, HRW said.

“The Egyptian authorities should uphold their obligations to Syrian asylum seekers under international law,” Houry said. “That starts with ensuring that the security services immediately end their campaign of picking up Syrians on the streets and threatening them with summary deportation.”

UNHCR’s Regional Refugee Coordinator for the Syria Situation Mr. Panos Moumtzis referred to the dramatic humanitarian crisis in the region, describing it as the “largest and most rapidly deteriorating in the world.”

People who were forced to flee Syria currently exceed 1.3 million, compared to 33,000 in April 2012. As the crisis in Syria shows no signs of abating, this number increases by nearly 8,000 people on a daily basis.

The percentage of women and children amounts to 71%.

“For all of us who work in the humanitarian field, this battle is around the clock” said Mr. Moumtzis.

“The security situation in Syria continues to deteriorate rapidly and this has an immediate devastating impact on the civilian population.”

UNHCR’s Head of Office in Greece, Mr. Giorgos Tsarbopoulos, presented the main protection considerations on Syrians in Greece.

He called upon the Greek authorities to ensure that Syrian refugees have access to Greek territory and safety; as well as unhindered access to the asylum procedure and international protection, in accordance with the provisions of the 1951 Geneva Convention or other forms of complementary protection.

He also underlined that Syrians should not be returned to Syria or to its neighbouring countries, until such time as the security and human rights situation in Syria has improved sufficiently.

Finally, he pointed out that Syrian refugees should not be detained and that their expulsion orders or return decisions should be suspended.

On behalf of the Ministry of Public Order and Citizen Protection, Major General Emmanuel Katriadakis underlined that, since 9 April 2013, an order is in effect, according to which “no Syrian will be detained in detention centers, but only for a few days, in order to identify their country of origin. There will be a six-month suspension of return decisions, which will be renewed every six months, until the situation in Syria is back to normal.”

According to figures provided by Mr Katriadakis, in 2012, the number of Syrians who were arrested on account of irregular entry to Greece was 7,927. This figure represents a 420% increase in comparison to 2011 (1,522 arrests). During the first quarter of 2013, 1,276 arrests were

It appears that some asylum seekers arriving from Syria in Egypt are at risk of refoulement, forced return to Syria, Human Rights Watch said. Egyptian airport officials deported two Syrian men back to Syria on January 13, 2013, in violation of Egypt’s non-refoulement obligations. In mid-December, immigration officials halted an attempted deportation of 13 Syrians at the last minute.

“Egypt may have a right to detain people temporarily or investigate them on grounds of false documentation but it may not under any circumstance return them to Syria,” said Bill Frelick, Refugee Program director at Human Rights Watch. “Egypt is obligated under international law not to return anyone, regardless of status, to a place where they would be persecuted.”

The authorities should allow representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to visit the two men, Human Rights Watch said. The Palestinians told credible sources that they had entered Egypt from Syria using their official Palestinian refugee travel documents with the rest of their family.

Subsequently the man travelled to Turkey using his travel document and from there attempted to travel to a European Union country using improper documents, Turkish officials said. Turkish officials deported them to Egypt, where airport officials detained them on grounds of having attempted to travel using false documents and told them they would be deported.

UNHCR’s latest guidance on Syrian refugees calls on all countries to “maintain a moratorium on all returns to Syria for the time being, pending an assessment of when the changed situation in the country would permit return in safety and dignity.”

Both the Convention against Torture and the African Refugee Convention forbid Egypt from sending people to countries where they face a serious risk of persecution or torture. The African Refugee Convention calls on member states to use their “best endeavors” to receive refugees and provide them asylum.

Egypt is also a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which, under article 13, prohibits arbitrary expulsion and entitles foreigners to an individual decision on their removal/expulsion. The UN Human Rights Committee has interpreted article 7 of the ICCPR to forbid refoulement – or forced return – of people to places where they would be at risk of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Egypt is bound to apply the ICCPR to anyone in its territory.

On January 13, Cairo airport officials deported two other Syrian men, ages 20 and 22, to Damascus on January 13. The two had landed in Egypt on December 12 from Syria with valid passports. When they attempted to travel to France13 days later, airport immigration officials detained them on the grounds that their visas to France were forged, credible community sources told Human Rights Watch.

In the week of December 13, immigration officials transferred 13 Syrians who had been in detention in Qanater prison after their arrest in Salloum to Cairo airport for deportation. Airport security officials released 6 of them on January 16 after their lawyer intervened, and the other 7 remained in the airport for another day. They were released after UNHCR intervened. It is unclear what prompted this attempted deportation, and what stopped it.

Egypt has provided protection for more than 13,000 refugees from Syria, a positive development, Human Rights Watch said. And most refugees have been able to enter at the Cairo airport without difficulty. But the two cases of refoulement raise concerns that, going forward, airport officials might use improper documents as grounds to deport to Syria, Human Rights Watch said.

Egypt is party to the 1951 Refugee Convention but has turned over responsibility for determining refugee status to UNHCR. Interior Ministry immigration officials have in the past ordered deportations that amount to refoulement, most notoriously in 2008 with the deportation of 1,200 Eritreans. But until the past two months Egypt had not attempted refoulement of Syrians.

Interior Ministry deportation orders may be challenged before Egypt’s administrative courts. In 2010, an Egyptian administrative court ordered immigration officials to halt an attempted deportation of two recognized Sudanese refugees on the grounds that their deportation would violate Egypt’s obligations under the Refugee Convention and the ICCPR.

“At a time of great conflict and tragedy in Syria, we call on Egypt and all countries not to return any residents of Syria, including Palestinians, to Syria,” Frelick said.

The Israeli foreign ministry has been working on the repatriation of African citizens and has made agreements with Ethiopia and South Sudan. 

As for the Ivory Coast and Ghana, Haartez news reported that an Israeli senior in the foreign ministry said that they will deport these nationals by force if the governments do not cooperate. 

The Israeli government cannot legally repatriate immigrants from Eritrea, North Sudan and Somalia because their lives would be at risk upon their return.

Human rights supporters have condemned the move and branded the mass expulsion of migrants as “immoral,” while Netanyahu’s government brands them as “infiltrators” and sees them as a threat to the Jewish demographic in the country, according to imemc.org.

A law also came into force on Sunday allowing Israeli authorities to detain illegal immigrants for up to three years without trial or deportation.

African immigrants who account to 60,000, have become the target of many protests recently as thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to demand the expulsion of all asylum-seekers and immigrants. Israeli has accused African immigrants for rising crime and violence in the country, according to Reuters.

All of the migrant workers arrested by Israeli authorities so far have been transferred to Saharonim detention center which has a capacity of 2,000 spaces. The Interior Ministry predicts the center will reach maximum capacity next month and a currently working on expanding it to accommodate 5,400, RT reported.

Israel is currently building a fence across its border with Egypt in an attempt to stop the flow of African migrants.