By Cynthia Johnston

CAIRO, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Amnesty International said on Thursday it feared for the safety of 91 African migrants deported by Israel to Egypt last month, saying they risked being held incommunicado and then sent on to unsafe countries.

Those expelled by Israel in late August include potentially vulnerable migrants of Sudanese and Eritrean origin who slipped across the sensitive Sinai desert border into the Jewish state, Amnesty said.

Rights groups say Eritreans especially are at risk of torture if Egypt sends them on to Asmara, and Sudanese may also be in danger. Egyptian security sources said Cairo would deport them all. "Asylum seekers and migrants who are forcibly returned from Israel to Egypt are in danger of being detained incommunicado and then being forcibly returned to countries such as Eritrea and Sudan," Amnesty said in a statement.

It added that in those countries, the migrants would then be "at risk of further human rights violations".

Israel's move to send the migrants to Egypt came as Cairo is under scrutiny over its decision to send up to 1,200 Eritrean asylum seekers home to Asmara in June despite objections by the U.N. refugee agency, which feared for their safety.

Egypt for years tolerated tens of thousands of Africans on its territory, but its attitude soured in recent months after it came under pressure to halt a rising flow of African migrants and asylum seekers crossing the border into Israel.

Egypt cracked down hard in June, and its deportations of probable refugees were its largest in decades. Egyptian police have also shot dead 20 African migrants at the Israel border this year.

The Israeli army said earlier this week that it had handed "an undisclosed number of African refugees" to Egypt and planned to deport 27 more after coordinating the return with Egypt.

Egyptian security sources have said Israel returned 48 migrants. Amnesty put the number expelled since Aug. 23 at 91, and said Israel had not allowed them to challenge the decision to deport them, which it said violated international law.

Amnesty complained that the Israeli deportations "failed to take into account the fact that Egypt has consistently violated the human rights of migrants and asylum seekers".

One year ago Israel sent to Egypt 48 mostly Sudanese asylum seekers and Amnesty said 20 of those were ultimately sent on to Sudan after being held incommunicado in Egypt for several months. "There is no information on the other 28, who may remain in secret detention in Egypt," Amnesty said. (Writing by Cynthia Johnston)

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