Amnesty International has released a report entitled "Deadly Journeys Through the Desert", which calls for the urgent investigation of Egypt's treatment of Sub-Saharan African refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants. According to the report, thousands of refugees in Egypt are being "killed, imprisoned and forcibly returned to countries where they are at risk of serious human rights violations."

The report claims that twenty-five people have been shot while attempting to cross the Egyptian border into Israel since mid-2007, and that in June 2008 up to 1,200 Eritrean nationals were forcibly deported from Egypt to Eritrea, where they risk being subject to "torture and other serious human rights violations".

The report also condemns the "unfair trials" by an Egyptian military court of more than 1,300 civilians charged with "attempting to exit unlawfully the Egyptian eastern border".

Amnesty International calls on the Egyptian government to respect its international obligations toward asylum seekers and refugees and to end the widespread abuse of their human rights.