Asylum seekers sit in a UNHCR registration center in Cairo, Egypt on July 25, 2023.
Many refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt, most from Sudan and South Sudan, have faced a months-long campaign of arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention, and deportation.Refugees and asylum seekers are losing their residency status because of bureaucratic delays and are being jailed and deported for lacking documents the government has failed to provide.Egyptian authorities should stop arresting and deporting asylum seekers and refugees, particularly those based solely on expired residency permits, uphold international obligations, and amend its Asylum Law and bylaws to protect refugees and asylum seekers from further legal limbo.
(Beirut) – Many refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt, mostly from Sudan and South Sudan, have faced a months-long campaign of arbitrary arrest, unlawful detention, and deportation, Human Rights Watch said today. Egyptian authorities are arresting refugees and asylum seekers whose residency permits have expired due to the government’s prolonged administrative delays, including people with valid UNHCR cards.
Refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt are required to renew their residency permits with the government annually, but due to government backlogs, some people are being given renewal dates as late as 2028, leaving them exposed to these abuses. At the same time, refugee status determination, long handled by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Egypt, is due to be transferred to the government under the 2024 Asylum Law. However, the government has yet to implement the law’s bylaws, and UNHCR also faces a backlog in processing asylum applications.
“Refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt are losing their residency status because of bureaucratic delays, and are being jailed and deported for lacking the very documents t
