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The Refugee Platform in Egypt commends the efforts of the Egyptian authorities in facilitating the administration of Sudanese tertiary education entrance exams within Egyptian public schools. As part of an ongoing cooperation agreement between the Sudanese and Egyptian Education Ministries, this agreement aims to provide a suitable environment for the administering of qualifying exams within Egypt, and increases academic opportunities for forcibly displaced Sudanese students to continue their education despite the burdensome circumstances they are facing.
Simultaneously, RPEGY calls on Egyptian authorities to halt the campaigns of arrest, detention, and imprisonment targeting asylum seekers during this extremely critical period that coincides with the Sudanese tertiary education entrance exams. Estimates indicate that approximately 38,000 Sudanese students will take these exams within Egypt this year, distributed across centers in Cairo, Alexandria, and Aswan. The exams are scheduled to begin on April 13th, 2026, and continue through April 23rd, according to an announcement by the Sudanese Education Ministry.
The platform cannot stress enough the imperative of providing these students every opportunity to take their entrance exams in an environment that ensures safety and peace of mind. Particularly, an environment free from threats of prosecution and carceral punishment, whether against themselves or their families, to guarantee their fundamental right to education and protect their future from being jeopardized.
Furthermore, the platform expresses its deep concern over reports from human rights organizations regarding the detention of a number of forcibly displaced Sudanese high school students, along with decisions to deport some of them from Egyptian territory, despite their holding valid residence permits. These incidents, which RPEGY documented in 2024 and 2025 that continue to this day, raise serious concerns regarding the extent to which due legal process is being respected, and the possibility that forcibly displaced students are being subjected to arbitrary measures that undermine their security and their right to pursue education.
The platform has confirmed cases of detention involving a number of forcibly displaced Sudanese students; the most recent of which occurred on March 26th, 2026 when Egyptian security forces in Menoufia Governorate arrested six forcibly displaced Sudanese students, including two women students. Five of the six students are studying at Menoufia University at the medical and applied health sciences faculties. The authorities claimed they were checking the students’ residency status, despite the fact that their permits were valid and some of them were registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). As of the time of this written appeal, some of these six students remain in detention. Additionally, a number of forcibly displaced Sudanese students were arrested in the Faisal and 6th of October City areas on April 8th, 2026, according to statements from their parents. It should be noted that these students are registered to take the high school graduation exams scheduled for April 13th, 2026, and that their detention may prevent them from taking their entrance exams on the aforementioned, scheduled dates. This constitutes a direct violation of these students’ right to education and a grave threat to their academic prospects, and can result in severe psychological and social consequences for them and their families.
The ongoing campaigns of arrest, detention, and imprisonment at this critical juncture directly threaten students’ academic futures, as these measures risk preventing students from taking their exams. Moreover, these campaign measures come with grave psychological and humanitarian consequences that extend to students and their families. Concurrently, these measures contribute to exacerbating the precarious legal and living conditions of forcibly displaced people, especially given the slow processing of residence permits; a lack of legal procedural clarity; and the absence of effective protection mechanisms to shield forcibly displaced people from the risk of arrest and forced deportation.
We also affirm that these measures constitute a violation of the principle of non-refoulement, as enshrined in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, as well as Egypt’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the constitutional guarantees for the protection of human dignity as well as the right to liberty and personal safety.
As a result, the Refugee Platform in Egypt (RPEGY) demands the Egyptian authorities:
- Immediately release all detained students, including those taking the Sudanese tertiary education entrance exams to ensure the students’ return to their studies without delay.
- Immediately cease all search and detention campaigns targeting forcibly displaced Sudanese citizens until the conclusion of the tertiary education entrance exams in late April 2026.
- Issue recognized identification cards to students registered to sit for these exams, thereby guaranteeing them full mobility to and from their residences and exam centers without fear of arrest.
- Streamline legalization procedures, thus expediting the granting of residency permits and bypassing the bureaucratic obstacles that render students and other foreign residents in conditions of forced irregularity formally.
- Ensure that no students are arrested or deported during the exam period, ergo enabling them to take their exams in a secure and stable environment.
- Formally recognize the exceptional circumstances of forcibly displaced Sudanese students residing in Egypt, as they are a uniquely affected subgroup by virtue of the destabilizing proxy war disrupting their educational trajectory.
- Enable all detained students to prepare and sit for their exams regardless of any extenuating circumstances
- Provide access to fair and safe asylum procedures as well as straightforward information regarding available legal pathways.
- Reinforce coordination with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to facilitate the issuance of residence permits, the renewal of documents, and the provision of necessary protection.
