Egypt Unlawfully Deported Sudanese Refugees, Rights Group Says

REUTERS:  Egypt has carried out mass arrests and unlawful deportations of thousands of refugees fleeing the war in Sudan, Amnesty International said in a report on Wednesday.

The rights group said it had documented 12 incidents in which Egyptian authorities returned an estimated total of 800 Sudanese nationals between January and March this year without giving them the chance to claim asylum or challenge deportation decisions.

It also said it had documented in detail the cases of 27 Sudanese refugees arrested between October 2023 and March 2024, 26 of whom were among those collectively expelled. Refugees had been held in cruel and inhuman conditions ahead of their deportation, it added.

The total number of arrests and deportations are unclear as there are no publicly available statistics. The U.N. refugee agency said thousands were deported late last year, many of them Sudanese.

Egypt’s State Information Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Amnesty International said Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights denied its findings about a rise in the number of arrests and deportations of Sudanese refugees, asserting in a response to the group that authorities respect international law.

The arrests were part of a campaign starting in September 2023 in which plain clothes police have made random checks on Black people, arresting those not carrying valid identity documents or residence permits, Amnesty International said.

The checks happen frequently in the capital Cairo and its sister city of Giza, where large numbers of Sudanese have settled, as well as in the southern Egyptian city of Aswan, where many Sudanese refugees stop on their way north.