EgyptAir flight MS833 took off from Cairo on Oct. 31 at 10:40 p.m., heading for Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. On board the plane were eight Eritrean refugees of the same family and between the ages of three and 70 who, despite the risk of being detained, ill-treated and tortured upon arrival, were forcibly deported by the Egyptian authorities.

According to a source at the independent Refugees Platform in Egypt, the eight refugees had been held at al-Qusayr police department, in the Red Sea Security Directorate, since December 2019, two months after being arrested for entering Egypt from Sudan irregularly. The group was held without legal basis, as they were not presented to any official investigation body, and they were not allowed to have access to a lawyer or to the local office of the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, the same source said. Five of the deportees also have chronic diseases that require medicine and surgery, the Refugees Platform in Egypt stated.

The forced deportation of the eight refugees is causing alarm among human rights groups as it comes when at least 10 other Eritrean refugees in Egypt are currently under threat of deportation, and following the last-minute postponement of sending back two Eritreans in September. The deportations also raise concern as they take place amid an escalating war in Ethiopia, where Eritrea has deployed soldiers. In addition, they cast doubt on Egypt’s projection of itself as a safe haven for refugees, a rhetoric that has earned it the sympathy of the European Union, which has been increasingly open in recent years to channel funds and cooperate with their Egyptian counterparts as part of their strict migration policy.

“Their deportation means that many other Eritrean refugees are at risk,” Helen Kidan, advocacy head for the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights, told Al-Monitor. “All Eritrean refugees in detention centers in Egypt are those who are going to be at imminent risk of deportation, and this will have wider implications for those who are still waiting to get refugee status from the UNHCR,” she told Al-Monitor. “If the problem is not properly addressed, it will affect many more people.”