‘Harrassment’ of Darfur refugees in Egypt

Sudanese who fled to Egypt complained that they are being subjected to harrassment in the streets. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has rejected the asylum requests they submitted last year.

A woman from Darfur told Radio Dabanga that the refusal to grant asylum to the refugees from the conflict region has prompted Darfuris to resort to illegal immigration across the Mediterranean Sea toward Europe. The despair about the promises of Commission led to others also making the journey over sea, she said.

“Darfuris have been arrested by the Egyptian police while trying to migrate to Europe,” the refugee said. “Rumour goes that some are handed over to the Sudanese government.”

The Darfuris live in a difficult humanitarian and health situation, she said, because of their financial problems and the rise of prices in Egypt.

In November last year, the Sudanese community in the capital of Egypt reported a deteriorating security situation and being harrassed by Egyptians. 20 Sudanese nationals were deported to Sudan after illegally trying to cross the border into Libya in July 2015.

According to a report by the Geneva-based Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime, the eastern route of migration from Africa to Europe sources from Somalia, Eritrea, and Darfur in Sudan. The route tends to cut north through Sudan and Egypt. Of the 153,840 people who arrived in Italy by sea in 2015, almost 9,000 came from Sudan, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in a report on 26 February.