Thursday, June 20, 2024 

Amnesty International reported on June 18, that Egypt is mass arresting and forcibly deporting Sudanese refugees.

The report says that between October 2023 and March 2024, Egyptian police and Border Guard carried out arbitrary arrests of 287 refugees, of which there are details for 27 cases in the report. Amnesty also reported, that between January and March 2024, an estimate of 800 Sudanese detainees were returned without possibility to challenge the decision or claim asylum. There a no publicly available statistics, but UN refugees agency is confirming thousands of deportations at the end of 2023.

In April 2023, a civil war broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary forces of RSF. This caused the world’s biggest displacement crisis of nine million displacements, of which 500 thousand have escaped to Egypt, according to International Organization for Migration. The arrivals of Sudanese refugees has caused tensions in Egypt. Goverment and media have accused the refugees for further tipping Egypt’s economic instability. Also in 2023, availability of foreign currency decreased in Egypt and detained Africans were required to pay in dollars for avoiding deportation.

In October 2022, EU and Egypt signed an agreement to control human trafficking and illegal migration on Egypt’s borders. In March 2024, more investments were made to further strengthen the partnership between EU and Egypt.