At a time of ease for refugees in Egypt, pro-government TV anchor Azza Mostafa has expressed his generosity towards the thousands of Syrians who have built new lives in Egypt after their country plunged into civil war in 2011. There were only words.
“I want to say this to my family in Syria and my brothers in Egypt,” she said. Broadcast in 2019“You have truly brought light to Egypt.”
But she appeared on her own show in June, infuriating Egypt’s growing number of outsiders. It’s an echo of the country’s leaders, who are hardening policies toward refugees and migrants as they grapple with an economic crisis made worse by wars in neighboring Gaza, Sudan and India. Libya.
“I couldn’t take it anymore.” Mostafa said.accused immigrants of raising rents and promoting female genital mutilation. “There’s a lot of pushing the envelope. Is that acceptable? After we open the country to them?”
Egypt has long made it easy for foreigners of all kinds to live and work in the country with little interference, whether they are refugees, migrant workers or Westerners fleeing coronavirus lockdowns. I’ve been doing it.
For the past 13 years, the country known among Arabs as the “Mother of the World” has seen a near-constant stream of newcomers fleeing conflict. This includes not only Syrians, but also Sudanese, Yemenis, Eritreans and, most recently, Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Due to Egypt’s lax immigration rules, many never formally registered as refugees or received formal permission to stay long-term, but they integrated almost seamlessly into Egypt, supporting themselves and sometimes even starting businesses. Ta.
But since Sudan’s civil war led to a surge in refugee flows to Egypt starting in 2023, the impoverished Cairo government has complained increasingly loudly about the burden of foreigners. Analysts and diplomats say it has rapidly tightened its policies in hopes of gaining more support from international backers who want to stem immigration into their country.
Officials and pro-government media say Egypt spends $10 billion a year on its 9 million refugees (though experts say both figures are vastly exaggerated). ) Meanwhile, Egyptians are enduring soaring prices and reduced subsidies.
Years of government overspending, reliance on imports, and policies that ignored private sector growth left the country in a precarious state of finances until the wars in Ukraine and Gaza led to its collapse. Egypt lost $7 billion in vital revenue from the Suez Canal in 2024 as the Gaza conflict strained shipping in the Red Sea, government officials said.
Egypt is deeply in debt and struggling to pay for imports such as wheat and energy, causing its currency to collapse and making some goods difficult to obtain.
Ahmed Abu Al-Yazid, head of state-run sugar company Delta Sugar Company, blamed refugees for the sugar shortage, which experts have linked to the economic crisis. The president accused them of depleting Egypt’s precious water. On social media, pro-government accounts, some of which appear to be fake, accused Sudanese refugees of jacking up rents and promoting female genital mutilation.
Migrants, refugees and their advocates say the crackdown began soon after the accusations were made.
Sudanese refugees are rounded up He was detained during a police raid and immediately deported. Syrians who have lived in Egypt for years are said to pay thousands of dollars to stay. Despite the fall of the Assad regime in December, many remain hesitant to return until the situation stabilizes.
Currently, foreign workers from other parts of Asia and Africa face more hurdles Advocates say people are sometimes arrested and forced to pay exorbitant fees to maintain their legal status.
Last month, Egypt passed a law that puts responsibility for vetting refugees and others in the hands of the government, rather than the United Nations refugee agency.
Government officials said the measure would ensure a wide range of rights for refugees. But critics of the move said it would: much more difficult So that refugees can get protection and access to health care and schools. The law also gives the government the power to revoke refugee status for vague reasons such as a violation of national security, political activity, or violation of Egyptian social customs.
Abu Saleh, a 32-year-old Syrian who works at a small grocery store in Cairo, said he had “no problems” for 13 years, until he realized in July that he could not enroll his son in school without a residence permit. He said he lived in Cairo. .
He said he was told he would have to return to Syria and pay a $2,000 fee per person just to renew his family’s tourist visas. This procedure must be repeated every six months.
“Egypt has always helped us,” Abu Saleh said. He asked for the names he uses around town to be revealed to avoid possible repercussions. “I would like to appeal to the Egyptian government to give us housing, even if it is a little expensive. We are facing a difficult situation.”
Egypt has not explained its hardening attitude toward foreigners. But analysts and immigration advocates have linked the issue to the economic crisis, which has sparked widespread bitterness and undermined the rule of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Human rights groups say the newcomers have become convenient scapegoats for the suffering of Egyptians. Entry fees charged in dollars could provide some of Egypt’s much-needed foreign exchange. And foreigners are also valuable pawns for Egypt to seek more financial support from international partners, human rights groups say.
“They’re thinking, ‘How can these people be useful to the government?'” said Nour Khalil, executive director of the Egyptian Refugee Platform, which advocates for migrant rights.
United Nations Refugee Agency There are approximately 818,000 registered refugees. In Egypt, they are entitled to free public health care and education. There are likely many more unregistered refugees, but analysts and aid workers dispute that number reaches 9 million.
The benefits registered refugees mean Egypt “treats them like Egyptians, even though we are not a rich country,” Foreign Minister Badr Abdellatti said at a press conference last month. Ta. “No country in the world has taken on these responsibilities and challenges as well as here in Egypt. We don’t have a single refugee camp and they are fully integrated into society.”
Refugee advocates agree that Egypt needs more resources. Unlike other countries in the region, such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, where the United States, United Nations, and European Union have poured billions of dollars into refugee aid, Egypt has invested billions of dollars to help house Syrians and other refugees. Funds not received.
That is changing.
As the Gaza war takes a toll on Egypt’s finances, Western backers are rushing to help Egypt, desperate to prevent economic collapse in the Arab world’s most populous country, analysts and diplomats say. say. The conflict in Egypt could further destabilize the Middle East and send large numbers of migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe, where there is intense public pressure to limit immigration.
The European Union has committed to a swift response. $8 billion aid package This mirrors agreements the bloc has struck with Mauritania, Tunisia and Turkey, funding immigration enforcement in those countries.
Other donors, including the International Monetary Fund, are transferring billions more to stabilize Egypt’s economy.
Critics say the European deal with Egypt, like other migration agreements in the region, enable rights infringement It could reward El-Sissi’s authoritarianism and fund the current immigration crackdown.
Organizations such as Amnesty International and the Egyptian Refugee Platform documented a pattern they say Examples of mass arbitrary arrests and illegal deportations of Sudanese refugees, some detained while smuggling across borders and others rounded up during random sweeps in Sudanese-majority areas. There are some too.
Some Syrians have also been expelled, said Khalil of the Refugee Platform. His group also recorded the arrest of more than 50 foreign workers, some of whom already had residency rights, who were detained until they paid $1,000 in fees and fines.
The atmosphere of fear has pushed Sudanese to the doorsteps of the United Nations refugee agency in Cairo, seeking formal protection. But obtaining refugee status can take months, if not years. Reservations to begin the process will not be available until late 2025. Some detained and deported Sudanese also have some form of UN identification, Khalil said. Questions have arisen about whether organizations can guarantee security.
Mohamed Abdelwahab, 36, was among those waiting outside one morning. By the time he and his family tried to cross the border from Sudan this spring, Egypt had severely restricted free movement between the two countries, so they turned to smugglers. Instead.
Abdelwahab and his 14-year-old son Mohanad had no legal documents and were making a living collecting plastic bottles on the streets of Cairo. Abdelwahab was looking for a better job when Mohanad disappeared one day in June.
Twenty days later, Mohanad resurfaced in a WhatsApp message saying he had been rounded up and deported along with a group of other Sudanese.
Abdelwahab was looking for Mohanad in another city. When he returned to Cairo, his wife and three other children had been evicted for nonpayment.
“Words cannot describe it,” he said. “We’re all camping here now,” he added, referring to his family and gesturing to the sidewalk in front of the refugee agency, where a group of other Sudanese men waited languidly in the sun. .
Emad Mekei and Rania Khalid Contributed to the report.