More migrants seek refuge in Egypt

Perhaps the most important refugee ever to have entered Egypt, seeking shelter from Roman oppression was the child Jesus and his family. The four-year old little girl who died in the early hours on December 30th 2005 at the Mustafa Mahmoud Square in front of the UN headquarters was not as lucky, she was among 20 people killed in a stampede when state security tried to storm the camp that was set up by Sudanese migrants staging a sit-in three months earlier protesting UNCHR policy. If the infant Jesus and his parents would have seeked shelter today,chances are that he wouldn´t have been allowed to enter Egypt.

There are about 42 000 refugees living in Egypt, whom are registered with UNHCR(2008)in Cairo, the majority being from Sudan (54 per cent), a quarter from Iraq (24 per cent), 13 per cent from Somalia, refugees from Eritrea and Ethiopia also form significant numbers, which are growning. The number of people living in Egypt, but not registered with the UNCHR are believied to be much higher, for example the Iraqis living in Egypt currently are estimated to be at least 17 000. Egypt was one of the major destinations for Iraqis at the hight of the sectarian violence in Iraq 2004-05, and according to Egyptian entry data there would be somewhere between 100 000 and 150 000. Much tougher visa restrictions put in place in late 2006 have minimized the number of Iraqis opting for Egypt. Some may have moved on, trying to secure entry to the EU, some have returned, but most likely, a large number of those entering Egypt in 2004-05 are still residing in Egypt, without official refugee status. That is most likely the case with the other refugee groups as well.

Dalia Malek points out the protection gap facing those entering Egypt illegally, obstructing or denying them access to UNCHR, among other things. Showing another side of the plentiful problems that refugees can face in Egypt.

One of the things that has bothered me the most in the last couple of years is how reckless our border guards are with their guns, with a policy that seems to be shoot first, and ask later, especially when it comes to migrants/refugees trying to cross the border to Israel. I´m not going to dwell on the subject much further at this point, but to stress the urgency of this pattern, the latest chapter in this tragic saga being the two killed last Sunday.

For those who wants further reading on this, the Human Rights watch report from November 2008, Sinai Perils provides a good start.

For those keen on knowing more about the situation for Iraqi refugees living in Egypt, a topic also raised in the Al Jazeera-English clip above, could start at the Iraqis in Egypt site.

In June 2009, the first Cairo Refugee film festival was held, you can find the website here.

World refugee day

Today is the World Refugee Day. Please give the 37.4 million refugees around the world a thought today. 11.4 million of them have fled their countries and 26 million are internally displaced. The increase of refugees during 2007 alone, was 2.5 million. Coumbia tops the list of internally displaced refugees with 3 million IDP´s Iraq has 2.4, million and Somalia 0.6 million and Sudan 0.5 million.

Iraq alone has about 5 million refugees, about half of them living abroad. Afghanistan has 3.1 million refugees, most of them living in Pakistan that is the largest refugee country with 2 million refugeees, followed by Syria with 1.5 million refugees, Iran 0.96 million, Germany 0.58 million and Jordan 0.5 million.

As you can see most refugees live as internally displaced or in neighbouring countries.

Archbishop Rahho found dead

The Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Paulos Faraj Rahho was found dead in Mosul on Thursday. He was abducted on the 29 of February 2008, when his car was attacked and two body guards and his driver was killed.

Approximately 550 000 of Iraq´s 700 000 Christians belong to the Chaldean Church, read more about it here.

May Archbishop Rahho rest in peace.

I seldom comment on events not directly connected to Egypt on this blog,that´s not because i don´t care about what happens to the rest of the world, quite the opposite.

This story is just one of many that comes out of Iraq everyday. next week will mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the American adventure in Iraq and ousting of Saddam. Since that day five years, the only thing that i can truly say was a positive accomplishment was getting rid of Saddam. That the oppressed Shia community finally gained a say in the power sharing of the country was also a good step. A relatively free press and babysteps in democracy is also some positive achievements , but what else is good in Iraq? One might argue the pro and cons of the surge, is it working or not? the numbers of dead are lower than a year ago, but they are starting to rise again. Lack of electricity makes living conditions harsher. Oil production has not been at a satisfactory level. The fact that there is less of sectarian killings right now , is largely due to the fact that the sectarian divide is completed, neighbourhood´s that used to be mixed are almost entirely sunni or shia today. More than four million Iraqis are displaced , either inside the country or in Syria or Jordan. The reconciliation and power sharing works poorly. On the whole it will be a sombre anniversary.

Die Condi Sängerknaben

After yet another whirlwind tour of the region by Condi, this time accompanied by Robert Gates, and armed with a new Rashwa, this time in the form of arms deal with the Gulf States, Saudi, Egypt and for the balance, Israel, who of course got the best deal, just like it´s predestined to be.

On top of that everybody seems upbeat on the new momentum towards peace, I wonder if Papa Bush ever Alice in Wonderland to little Baby W? the administration seems totally living in Wonderland, togheter with their middle eastern boys choir. Of course no real peace deal can be achieved by not dealing with your enemy, and the boys choir is not your enemy. Anyone who thinks that anything good and productive will come out of this, needs to buy a new pair of glasses. Real peacetalks will only start with a new administration in the West Wing, or with Norway facilitating the release of corpral Shalit, and perhaps helping Fatah and Hamas to the table. It would be a real step towards any meaningful activity on the peace track.

The fantasy land stretces on to the overstretched American troops, and everybody else who opts out in Iraq, the latest being Denmark. At least the Iraqis themselves could enjoy the fantastic Iraqi team victory in the Asian Championship in fotball.

At least on one thing, even the White House dosen´t seem too keen on living in fantasy land anymore, the freedoom agenda seems to have been thrown into the Red Sea, but nobody expects it to split in half this time around, but then again this was a fantasy all along. For sure lip service was applied to Ayman Nour´s case this time as well, but it´s telling that Ms Rice only mentioned it en route back from the region to Washington.

Via Issandr Amrani at Arabist - Thanks for the clip!