Egypt, a dead end for Sudanese exiles

Thousands of foreigners rushed into the imposing building that houses the General Administration of Passports, Immigration and Nationality in Cairo’s Abbassia neighborhood. It was 8 am, and the bowels of Egyptian immigration, a veritable administrative labyrinth under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior, had just opened up. At the entrance to the building, long rows of chairs were lined up under a canopy in the section reserved for Sudanese nationals.

Ahead of Syrians, Yemenis and Libyans, they now form the largest exile community in Egypt. Since the outbreak of war on April 15, 2023, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 460,000 Sudanese people have taken refuge in Egypt, where 4 million of their compatriots already lived.

In the Abbassia center, police officers and intelligence agents abruptly directed them to various counters. “For weeks, I’ve been coming back every other day to get my residence permit. There’s an obstacle every time. You always have to provide additional papers. It’s humiliating,” complained Hamza (all first names have been changed for security reasons) , a 40-year-old banker who left Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, in August, after being beaten for five days in a jail run by militiamen from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

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In the maze of Egyptian administration, it takes an extremely long time to obtain a residence permit, and, most of the time, the precious documents are issued only for short periods. “They are valid for six months. But people often receive them after four months, which leaves them no more than two months to live legally before beginning a new application. It’s an obstacle course,” said Sheima Taj El-Sir, a Sudanese lawyer .

‘Measures that only increase illegality’

In the wake of the war in neighboring Sudan, which shares a 1,300-kilometer border, Egypt has tightened its entry requirements. In June 2023, the authorities ended the visa exemption previously granted to women, children under 16 and men over 50, de facto suspending the Four Freedoms Agreement signed in 2004 and intended to facilitate the movement of people.

Then, in August, Cairo introduced stricter rules for obtaining a residence permit, requiring a bank deposit in dollars and imposing a $1,000 tax on migrants who, having arrived illegally, wanted to regularize their status. Taj El-Sir described them as “measures that only increase illegality.”

In order to enter Egypt, more and more Sudanese are opting for illegal routes. “It’s risky: There are a lot of accidents, and many people disappear,” said Ahmed, a 25-year-old electrical engineer who left Khartoum in August with his sisters and mother in a 4×4 loaded with around 15 people.

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