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W6nnews.com ==== وطن === تاريخ النشر – 2026-02-18 12:09:00
In recent months, the Egyptian authorities have renewed their campaign of arbitrary arrests and unlawful deportations, targeting refugees and asylum seekers for no reason other than their legal status related to irregular migration, representing a flagrant violation of the principle of non-refoulement and the provisions of the Egyptian asylum law itself, Amnesty International said today. Some refugees or asylum seekers registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have been unlawfully deported or arbitrarily detained pending their deportation. Since late December 2025, plainclothes police have arbitrarily arrested citizens from Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, and other sub-Saharan countries, from the streets or from their workplaces in various cities in the country, following identity checks. People found to not have valid residence permits were taken away in unmarked vehicles, even when they were able to show UNHCR cards. The Egyptian authorities must immediately release all refugees and asylum seekers who have been arbitrarily detained solely on immigration grounds, and must stop deportations of all those entitled to protection under international law Mahmoud Shalabi, Egypt and Libya Researcher at Amnesty International Commenting on this, Mahmoud Shalabi, Egypt and Libya Researcher at Amnesty International, said: “Refugees who have fled war, persecution or humanitarian crises should not be forced to live in daily fear of arrest.” The Egyptian authorities’ forcible expulsion of refugees and asylum seekers not only constitutes a flagrant violation of international human rights and refugee law, but also violates the protections guaranteed by Egypt’s own recently adopted asylum law, which prohibits the forced return of recognized refugees. Some families, fearing arrest and deportation, have been forced to hide in their homes and live in… “A state of uncertainty and inability to access employment or education opportunities, and many families struggle to survive, after the main breadwinner is detained or deported. The Egyptian authorities must immediately release all refugees and asylum seekers who have been arbitrarily detained solely on immigration grounds, and must stop deportations of all those entitled to protection under international law.” Amnesty International has documented that security forces arbitrarily arrested 22 refugees and asylum seekers, including a child and two women, from their homes, the streets or at checkpoints, between late December 2025 and 5 February 2026, in Cairo, Giza, Qalyubia and Alexandria governorates. These people arrested and detained are refugees and asylum seekers from Sudan, Syria and South Sudan, 15 of whom are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Among this group, security forces deported a Syrian asylum seeker registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. As for the remaining 21, they are still at risk of deportation, as the authorities have already begun deportation procedures, despite the prosecution’s orders to release 19 of them, while appointments have been set for the other three to renew their residence permits at the General Administration of Passports, Immigration and Nationality. There are no statistics available on deportations of Syrians, but some Egyptian NGOs raised the alarm about an increase in illegal deportations of Syrian citizens in mid-January. On January 17, the Syrian embassy in Cairo stated that it had received information from the Egyptian authorities stating that it was conducting “periodic residency audit campaigns.” The embassy advised Syrian citizens to carry permanently valid residence permits. On January 31, the Sudanese ambassador in Cairo said during a press conference that 207 Sudanese citizens were returned from Egypt in December 2025, in addition to 371 others who were returned in January 2026, without clarifying whether these deportations were carried out by security forces or whether these people were forced to return to their homes through programs coordinated between the Sudanese embassy and the authorities. Egyptian authorities, in order to avoid the risk of being arrested or detained indefinitely. The ambassador added that about 400 Sudanese citizens are currently detained in Egypt, without explaining the reasons for their detention. Since the outbreak of armed conflict in Sudan in 2023, Egyptian authorities have periodically carried out extensive identity verification campaigns targeting foreign citizens, with those without the necessary documents detained and subsequently deported. The Egyptian government does not publish official statistics on deportations. By January 2026, 1,099,024 refugees and asylum seekers were registered with UNHCR. Amnesty International interviewed a former detainee, four relatives of detained refugees and asylum seekers, a girlfriend of a released asylum seeker, a lawyer representing detainees, four refugees and asylum seekers whose families are forced to leave their homes due to the crackdown, as well as two community activists. The organization also spoke with two workers at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who documented cases of arbitrary detention and illegal deportation of refugees and asylum seekers. Detention despite setting appointments to renew residency permits and hold UNHCR cards. The Egyptian government requires all foreign citizens residing in the country “irregularly” to regularize their status by having an Egyptian host and paying an amount of 1,000 US dollars. Refugees and asylum seekers registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees are not subject to these conditions when renewing their residence permits. Many refugees and asylum seekers arrested since late December 2025 had appointments made at the General Directorate of Passports, Immigration and Nationality of the Ministry of Interior to renew their residency. These appointments are usually delayed due to the backlog of applications at the government administration, with some refugees and asylum seekers reporting that they have waited for up to three years to obtain appointments. Arbitrary arrests took place even in cases where refugees and asylum seekers were able to present UNHCR cards. In an interview with Amnesty International, the mother of a 10-year-old South Sudanese boy with a valid residence permit said she preferred to keep her son at home after hearing reports that police were confiscating valid refugee documents. This mother’s fears are well founded. Amnesty International documented the case of Issa, a 20-year-old refugee from Eritrea who is registered with the UNHCR and has a valid residence permit in Egypt. His mother said that the police confiscated his UNHCR card and residence permit, and warned him, saying: “We will bring you again, and you will not have any papers, and you will be imprisoned and deported.” On January 23, police arrested Ahmed, a 40-year-old Syrian asylum seeker registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, from a street in 6th of October City, Giza Governorate, six days before he was scheduled to renew his residence permit at the General Directorate of Passports, Immigration and Nationality. The next day, the prosecution ordered his release pending investigations into charges related to irregular residency in Egypt, and also ordered that he be referred to the “competent administrative authority,” which is the Ministry of Interior. Despite this, the police refused to release him and took him to the National Security Sector, to the General Administration of Passports, Immigration and Nationality, and to the Syrian Embassy to verify his identity, as part of deportation procedures. Forced deportations and refoulements In early February, police told Ahmed’s lawyer that his family must buy him a plane ticket to Syria, otherwise he would remain detained indefinitely. The family complied, and security officials deported Ahmed, who had been living in Egypt for 12 years after fleeing the armed conflict in Syria, without conducting an individual assessment of the risks he might face upon return, and despite a prosecutor’s order for his release. In 19 cases documented by Amnesty International, involving refugees or asylum seekers currently at risk of deportation, prosecutors had ordered their release pending investigation on immigration charges. However, the police continue to detain them despite these release orders, and without any further judicial review that would allow them to challenge the lawfulness of their detention. In the other two cases documented by Amnesty International, the families of the detainees were not sure that their relatives had appeared before the prosecution. In line with the pattern documented in Ahmed’s case, the Ministry of Interior has already begun taking all detainees to the relevant official authorities and to the diplomatic representatives of their countries as part of deportation procedures. It is worth noting that the principle of non-refoulement prohibits states from transferring anyone to a country where they would be at real risk of being subjected to serious human rights violations. Even Egypt’s flawed asylum law prohibits the extradition of “recognized refugees” to their country of origin or place of habitual residence, although there are other articles in the law that implicitly allow some exceptions under very vaguely worded reasons such as “national security and public order” considerations, without providing due process guarantees. Amnesty International opposes the forced returns of Sudanese nationals to Sudan in light of the continuing armed conflict characterized by serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, including large numbers of civilian deaths and injuries. Likewise, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees maintained its position rejecting all forced returns of Syrian citizens, due to the volatile security situation and the continuing dangers posed by armed groups that impose their control on some towns and cities. Devastating impacts on livelihoods and the right to education The crackdown has had devastating consequences for refugee families, particularly affecting their rights to education and work. In interviews with Amnesty International, three families, all registered with UNHCR, said they had stopped enrolling their children in schools or universities for fear of being arrested because they did not currently have valid residence permits. One family said that they were unable to obtain any appointment to renew their members’ expired residence permits, because they could not reach the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which books appointments on behalf of the Egyptian authorities, either by coming in person to the UNHCR’s only headquarters in the country, due to long queues, or through the UNHCR hotline. Another family reported that their son was scheduled to renew his residency in 2027. Some refugees and asylum seekers had to stop or reduce work to reduce the risk of arrest. Among them is Ahmed, a 26-year-old asylum seeker from Sudan registered with the UNHCR, who previously worked as a teacher in three schools. He has resigned from two and is currently working at one school near his home, in an attempt to limit his time away from home, as his residence permit has expired and is scheduled to renew it in 2028. In an interview with Amnesty International, Amina, a 49-year-old single refugee mother from Sudan, registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said that she had resorted to begging in the streets to support her two daughters, after losing the breadwinner of the family, her son. Moataz, who was arrested in the recent crackdown. The police arrested Moataz, an asylum seeker registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, on January 28, while working as a street vendor in Cairo, because he lacked a valid residence permit. He is scheduled to renew his residency in 2027. “The European Union, as a close partner of Egypt on migration matters and a major donor to UNHCR, must urge the Egyptian government to take concrete, verifiable measures to protect the rights of refugees and migrants, as well as to ensure that UNHCR has unimpeded access to all places of detention where refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are held, and to allow these detainees to submit applications,” Mahmoud Shalabi concluded. To obtain international protection, and ensure that it is evaluated fairly, European Union countries and other countries must also promote the principle of shared responsibility, by expanding resettlement opportunities and providing safe and regular pathways for people in need of international protection, including humanitarian visas, mobility programs for workers and students, and community care initiatives. https://www.amnesty.org/ar/latest/news/2026/02/https-www-amnesty-org-en-latest-news-2026-02-egypt-refugees-in-hiding-amid-crackdown-involving-arbitrary-arrests-and-unlawful-deportations/
