[EN] According the Global Detention Project’s study on detention politics and practices in Egypt, the government does not release statistics related to the actual/average length of time for administrative detention and the places where immigrants are held. Migrants and asylum seekers in Egypt are particularly vulnerable to detention and deportation, while their fundamental rights are not guaranteed.

Egypt Detention Profile

Introduction

Against a backdrop of harsh civil society crackdowns in Egypt, ongoing political turmoil in the Middle East, and severe poverty and repression in nearby African countries like Eritrea, refugees, asylum seekers, and unauthorized migrants in Egypt remain subject to numerous abuses and face enormous challenges regarding their futures.

Egypt has long been a destination and transit country for large numbers of asylum seekers and irregular migrants, including Sudanese, Iraqis, Ethiopians, Somalis, and Eritreans, as well as more recently people fleeing violence in Syria and Gaza. Since early 2013, the Egyptian police have reportedly detained more than 6,800 persons fleeing Syria (Kingsley 2014). .

There have been reports of Egyptian soldiers firing on smuggling vessels heading for Europe that are packed with Palestinians fleeing the destruction in Gaza wrought by Israeli bombing during its recent conflict with Hamas (Rollins 2014; Beaumont and Kingsley 2014). To accommodate those detained during these operations, authorities in Alexandria have reportedly begun using a youth centre in Alexandria (Rollins 2014), bolstering a large network of police stations in the region that been used recently for migrant detention operations (see the section “Detention Infrastructure” below).

Egypt is also an important country of emigration. According to official statistics, some 10 million Egyptian nationals (more than 10 percent of the total population) were living abroad as of 2011 (DW 2011).

Migrants and asylum seekers in Egypt are particularly vulnerable to detention and deportation. During more than three decades, the country was under an emergency decree, which gave authorities enormous latitude on who they could detain and why. Although these powers were mainly targeted at citizens and have recently been rescinded, security personnel in the country can apprehend foreign nationals for a variety of reasons.

An important legal justification for detaining migrants is provided in criminal law. According to information received by the Global Detention Project, unauthorized migrants are often charged with criminal violations stemming from their alleged irregular status and then incarcerated in prison facilities, which are notorious for being overcrowded and lacking basic detention conditions.

However, while it appears that migrants are frequently prosecuted for status-related violations, authorities reportedly avoid imposing criminal sanctions, instead keeping migrants in a form of administrative detention until they can be deported. Rights groups have repeatedly criticised the country for arbitrarily detaining non-citizens and using military tribunals to try them.

Egypt has also been widely condemned for implementing a “shoot-to-stop” policy targeting migrants crossing from Egypt to Israel; denying detained migrants access to appeal; undertaking mass forced returns of Eritreans and Syrians, who face persecution in their countries; preventing UNHCR and other rights bodies access to detainees; and indefinitely detaining stateless persons and unregistered asylum seekers.

Observers have also noted an apparent correlation between European efforts to block migrant routes across the Mediterranean and increases in the trafficking of migrants across the Sinai desert. According to one study, between 2007 and 2013, as many as 30,000 people were trafficked in the Sinai (Reisen, Meron and Rijken 2013).

In some cases, victims of trafficking are held in harsh conditions by Bedouin tribes. If they manage to escape and make it to Israel, they are subject to detention for up to three years under a new law adopted in Israel (PHRI/HL2012). If, on the other hand, they attempt to reach Cairo, they can be detained for long periods in police jails or military camps. According to unofficial estimates, thousands of victims of trafficking in Egypt have disappeared in recent years, some of whom were later found confined in Egyptian jails (Van Reisen, Meron and Rijken 2012, 2013).

See this article online:

http://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/africa/egypt/introduction.html