Deportation in Israel sparks ‘strong protest’

Date: 27/09/01

THE European Commission protested to the Israeli authorities to complain after an EU humanitarian aid worker was arrested at Tel Aviv airport, interrogated and thrown out of the country, it has emerged.

Marco Galucci, who works for an EU-funded Italian organisation that promotes democracy and international solidarity, was deported after being detained in Ben Gurion airport in June.

Luisa Morgantini, an Italian MEP who has taken up his complaint, said: "Although he was able to show clearly why he had come to Israel, [he was] questioned for several hours. He was not allowed to telephone his consulate, his computer was searched, his diskettes confiscated and he was eventually sent back to Italy."

External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said that a "strong protest" had been made to the Israeli foreign ministry over "unjustified behaviour" towards an EU citizen.

Haim Assaras, spokesman for the Israeli mission to the EU, said he did not know the details of the case but stressed that his country did all it could to help aid workers.

"We take the work of aid workers very seriously and we take great measures to help them both in getting into the country and also in helping them to move around once they are here, passing road blocks and so on," he said.

Galucci works for the Centro Regionale Di Intervento per La Cooperazione (CRIC), based in Reggio di Calabria.

The European Commission protested to the Israeli authorities after an EU humanitarian aid worker was arrested at Tel Aviv airport, interrogated and thrown out of the country.