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.

Amnesty Inernational report 2008

The Human Rights organization Amnesty International has issued it´s annual report, it paints a bleak picture of the state of human rights around the globe in 2007. Our neighbourhood, the Middle East and North Africa follows that pattern.

When it comes to Egypt, 18 000 remains in administrative detention, though around 530(mostly of the former militant islamists, challenging the state between 1992-97)was released during 2007. Torture and ill-treatment led to at least 20 cases of death during the same year.

I would like to stress two issues that are very important, but renders little attention. The cases of African refugees/migrants that is being shot at by border security personell on a weekly basis, while they try to cross the border to Israel. Six people died from July to December 2007, and the trend continues, with people dying on at least a monthly basis, the amount of cases, were people are being shot at are significantly higher than that, and one may ask if the border security personell is implementing a policy of shot first, ask later. It´s there role to safeguard the border, but to kill desperate people(some of them from Darfur)in a haphazard way is not in any way contributing to a safer border.

The issue of violence against women is also a question that needs to be addressed in a massive way, the urgency of the issue could not be stressed enough. This is an issue were much more attention, education and resources needs to be comitted. The quote below, from the report shows how urgent and important it is.

Violence against women claimed 247 lives in the first half of the year, according to an Egyptian NGO. In November the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights (ECWR) said sexual harassment was on the rise and that two women were being raped every hour in Egypt. It also said that of 2,500 women who had reported cases of sexual harassment to ECWR, only 12 per cent had made a complaint to the police. The official National Centre for Social and Criminal Research confirmed that sex crimes were on the rise,but could not provide figures.

The whole part focusing on Egypt in the report can be found here.

Ooops, we forgot to brief the Israelis

Some times it´s comical the way things always stay the same. In this case it´s the less than perfect affection of Israel and the United States towards the UN, an Organization that was the brainchild of Franklin D Roosevelt(and Winston Churchil), and midwifed in San Francisco, and whose General Assembly resolution on the 29th of November 1947(60 years ago almost to the day)led the way in terms of the International law framework for the creation of the state of Israel less than 6 months later. Almost always during the past 40 years has voting on any resolution about Israel been a foregone conclusion. If a resolution is deemed negative in any form or shape towards Israel, then the U.S will use it´s veto power. And then came Annapolis, were consensus was found.

The UN Security council was about to take a resolution, backing the outcome of the Annapolis gathering(i don´t know if any of the words Conference or meeting are appropriate, mostly because the organizers seemed to have problems in deciding on which to use in the run up to Annapolis), so i choose the neutral word instead in order not to step on somebody´s toes. The resolution was introduced by the U.S Ambassador to the U.N, Khalilzad, and was endorsed by the council in it´s entirety. END OF STORY, or so it seemed....

In a sudden about face, the United States on Friday withdrew a United Nations resolution endorsing this week's agreement by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to try to reach a Mideast peace settlement by the end of 2008, apparently after Israel objected.

Israel expressed opposition to the American initiative to pursue Security Council support for the proposed resolution because it does not consider most of the member states of the council to be friendly toward Israel.

U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff informed the Security Council that the United States was pulling the resolution from consideration less than 24 hours after U.S. Ambassador Khalilzad introduced it and welcomed the very positive response from council members.

It seems the Israelis were concerned about two things, the fact that they were not told about the resolution in advance. The other point is perhaps the important one. Israel want´s the security Council´s role and position to be as insignificant as possible. According to UN sources the Palestinians was not that keen on a resolution either.

"It's not the proper venue," Israel's deputy ambassador Daniel Carmon told reporters after Friday's council meeting. "We feel that the appreciation of Annapolis has other means of being expressed than in a resolution."

"We were not the only ones to object, Carmon added," saying the Americans had told the Israelis that the Palestinians also objected. UN sources also said that the Palestinian Authority said it wasn't interested in a resolution.


The UN has a role and a stake in this, because of their partnership in the Quartet, co-sponsors of the road map, which is still very much at the core of the process, although the UN human rights envoy for the Palestinian Territories, John Dugard could not see a reason for the U.N to stay the course as a partner in the Quartet if it fails to deal with Palestinian human rights. This was as recent as a month and a half ago and then only echoing his own words from the past.

So the UN are there to stay, and so are Israel, and they will probably keep on being like an old couple, always nagging at each other, but in the end they will be stuck with each other, regardless of the fact that the Annapolis process proves to be a happy ending, the beginning of the end or just another dead end.