At least 20 Sudanese migrants died when thousands of Egyptian riot police brutally evicted them from their protest camp in an affluent district of Cairo on Friday.

An estimated 2 000 Sudanese people had been camped for three months in Mustafa Mahmoud square, Mohandiseen -- an upper middle class suburb where the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has an office -- protesting about conditions in Egypt and seeking to be resettled in another country.

The attack began shortly before dawn when riot police turned water cannons on the group. The authorities then negotiated with the protest leaders in between bursts of the water cannons. At about 5am police swarmed into the camp from all directions.

A reporter for the Associated Press who witnessed police attacking the refugees with truncheons said that in many cases they continued to beat the protesters even as they were being dragged away.

The reporter also saw two adults and a young girl, apparently three or four years old, being carried away unconscious. A medical worker in an ambulance said the girl was dead.

One protester being dragged away by two policemen was clubbed with a tree branch about the size of a man's arm by a third officer.

Egypt's interior ministry blamed the violence on the protesters. "Attempts were made to persuade them to disperse, but to no avail," the ministry said in a statement. "The migrants' leaders resorted to incitement and attacks against the police."

Officials said 20 protesters died and a ministry statement said 50 more were injured, "mostly elderly and children". The statement said 75 police were also injured. According to the ministry, the casualties among protesters resulted from a stampede. The Associated Press reporter saw no stampede but said the protesters could not flee because the camp was completely encircled by police.

"Protesters could be seen fighting back with long sticks that appeared to be supports for makeshift tents," the reporter wrote.

Officials at the South Centre, a Sudanese human rights monitoring group, said 1 280 protesters were put into buses and taken to three camps outside Cairo.

The migrants were thought to be a mixture of Muslims, Christians and animists, from various parts of Sudan. They are believed to have included recognised refugees, asylum seekers and possibly some economic migrants.

"We're very shocked and saddened by what's transpired," said a UNHCR spokesperson in Geneva.

The protesters had been seeking resettlement in a third country "but that is not really in UNHCR's gift -- it's dependent on a third country agreeing to take them", she said. "We tried to maintain a dialogue with the protesters and there were several mediation attempts.

"What they seem to be saying is that conditions for them are tough in Egypt, but they are not in danger of being sent back [to Sudan]. They can work in Egypt and have education."

Between two and five million Sudanese people are thought to have fled to Egypt -- only to face racism in a country already suffering from poverty, high unemployment and inadequate social services. Photographs of Sudanese refugees who had allegedly disappeared or been killed in Egypt were displayed around the Cairo camp.

Three years ago Egyptian police rounded up hundreds of Africans in what, according to Human Rights Watch, was referred to on a police document as "Operation Track Down Blacks". - Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005