A Report from The Refugee Platform in Egypt

on the Forced Education Exclusion Crisis That Has Affected More Than 6,000 Yemeni Students in Egypt

This Report Was Produced by Mohammed Hafez’s Fellowship

Introduction

At the start of the current academic year, thousands of Yemeni students in Egypt found themselves at risk of losing an entire academic year due to being caught between administrative decisions that closed their schools and residency procedures that made school enrollment conditional on documents that are difficult to obtain, thereby putting their fundamental right to education at risk. This situation not only affects school schedules, but also threatens to exclude a large segment of Yemeni children and youth from the entire education system due to the broader context of bureaucratic restrictions and economic pressure on forcibly displaced families.

In October 2024, Egyptian authorities closed approximately 15 Yemeni community schools—along with schools belonging to other Arab communities—on the grounds that they did not meet legal licensing requirements, ergo suspending the education of thousands of children whose forcibly displaced families relied on these schools as their only or last resort to continue their dependent children’s studies outside their war-torn country of origin. The Yemeni community and embassy estimate that around 6,200 students were directly affected, suddenly finding themselves out of school with no alternatives, no effective transitional arrangements in place to ensure their education continues, and no protection for them from being forced to drop out of school altogether.

This crisis intersects with the legal framework governing the education of non-Egyptians in Egypt, as enrollment in public schools, even when permitted on an exceptional basis, is linked to the presentation of valid residency permits and documents that are difficult for many forcibly displaced Yemeni families to obtain given the complexity and cost of residency procedures. This correlation between residency and education turns an administrative requirement into a major obstacle to children’s right to education, especially for forcibly displaced families living on intermittent remittances or in unstable legal conditions, including refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers.

This report aims to analyze the legal framework governing the education of Yemeni students in Egypt, including the Education Ministry’s decisions on the enrollment of forcibly displaced students, the rules of study residence for forcibly displaced people, and the scope of exceptions granted to specific Arab nationalities. The report also seeks to identify legislative and procedural gaps demonstrated by the crisis of Yemeni school closures and to assess the roles and responsibilities of the parties concerned; from the Egyptian authorities and the Yemeni embassy to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and partner agencies, this report formulates applicable legal and procedural recommendations that will ensure academic years are not lost in the process for a whole generation of Yemeni children and students in Egypt. 

Forcibly Displaced Yemeni Citizens Residing in Egypt

Since 2015, Egypt has witnessed a significant increase in the number of forcibly displaced Yemeni citizens arriving in the country, transforming it from a primary destination for medical treatment, study, and tourism to a destination for forced displacement. Yemeni citizens began to seek safety in Egypt following the escalation of armed conflict between the foreign-recognized Yemeni government, supported by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, and Ansar Allah (Houthis). This conflict has resulted in a severe humanitarian and economic crisis as well as the forced displacement of millions of Yemeni citizens inside and outside of Yemen, with some 3.65 million people remaining internally displaced, while others are scattered across several countries, including Egypt, Sudan, Djibouti, Jordan, Malaysia, and Somalia.

Before the war, Yemeni citizens did not need a visa to enter Egypt and could reside there on a semi-permanent basis without complicated requirements for obtaining residence permits, making it an accessible destination for medical treatment, education, family visits, and tourism. Nevertheless, the launch of military operations by the Saudi-led coalition in March 2015 marked a turning point in the Egyptian government’s policy towards Yemeni citizens’ migration, as authorities began to adopt regulatory measures restricting entry and residence through the broader context of a security-based approach to migration in the region.

Under these measures, Yemeni citizens were required to obtain a visa prior to arrival on Egyptian territory. Residents within the country were also required to obtain valid residence permits as a condition for continued legal residence, with residence typically granted for a renewable period of six months while also being subject to the discretion of the relevant administrative authorities including the Passport, Immigration, and Nationality Authority. The procedures included the provision of a limited exemption from some of these restrictions for two age groups: minors under 18 and seniors over 50. Nonetheless, practical application of these procedures remained subject to wide margins of discretion and the associated risks of suspension or loss of legal status.

There are no accurate and/or transparent official statistics on the actual number of forcibly displaced Yemeni citizens residing in Egypt, and available estimates vary significantly. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated the number of forcibly displaced Yemeni citizens in Egypt at around one million in its report on the presence of nine million migrants in the country in 2022. Meanwhile, the media attaché at the Yemeni embassy in Cairo indicated that the number does not exceed 100,000 Yemeni residents. This discrepancy reflects the absence of a comprehensive system for registering asylum seekers, migrants, and refugees based on nationality, making it difficult to assess the actual needs of forcibly displaced Yemeni communities, including the educational needs addressed in this report. 

UN data indicates that 10,127 Yemeni citizens were registered as refugees or asylum seekers with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Egypt as of November 30th, 2025, representing approximately 1% of the total number of people registered with the UNHCR, which exceeds one million. The majority of  Yemenis, especially the most vulnerable and lowest-income groups, are concentrated in Greater Cairo and Giza Governorates. Research studies have shown that their communities are centered mainly on the west bank of the Nile in specific neighborhoods such as Faisal, Mohandessin, Dokki, and Ard El-Lewa, with a lower density in some areas of eastern Alexandria. This data reflects documented patterns of service and resource accessibility, including public and private schools and community education networks. 

Legal Framework Governing the Education of Foreigners in Egypt

The legal framework governing the education of non-Egyptians in Egypt reveals a fundamental contradiction between the state’s constitutional and international obligations and the material legislative and administrative regulation of non-Egyptian children’s enrollment in schools, which includes Yemeni children.

Egypt acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which requires States Parties to guarantee the right to education for every child within their territory without discrimination on the basis of nationality or legal status. Article 28 obliges States Parties to make primary education compulsory and available free of charge to all, with Article 2 prohibiting any form of discrimination, including discrimination based on national origin or status as an asylum seeker, migrant, or refugee. Nevertheless, Education Law No. 139 of 1981 remains limited in its scope to Egyptian citizens; while the admission of non-Egyptians is left to regulations and executive decisions issued by the Minister of Education, therefore keeping the educational status of non-Egyptian children in Egypt at the mercy of administrative discretion rather than a directly enforceable constitutional right.

At the constitutional level, Articles 19 and 80 of the Egyptian Constitution stipulate that education is compulsory until secondary school and that the state guarantees free education. Every child has the right to a name, identity documents, healthcare, basic nutrition, safe shelter, and education; and the state is obligated to care for and protect children from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation, without any explicit restrictions relating to nationality or residency designation. Nonetheless, this constitutional provision has not translated into direct, legislative material conditions that ensure education for all children residing in Egypt, whether citizens or non-citizens of Egypt. Instead, the enrollment of non-Egyptians in public and private schools was subject to changing ministerial decisions that allowed the restriction of this right through procedural or categorical requirements that have no basis in the Constitution or the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Article 20 of Law 164 of 2024 stipulates that ‘refugee children have the right to basic education and refugees who hold academic certificates awarded abroad have the right to have them recognized. All of this is in accordance with the rules established for foreigners in the relevant laws’. The articles of the law make the right to basic education contingent on the rules established for foreigners in relevant laws. Nonetheless, Egypt’s Education Law No. 139 of 1981 does not address the education of non-citizens, but rather addresses Egyptians specifically, hence creating a major legal gap in the handling of non-Egyptians studying in Egypt.

Ministerial Decree No. 284 of 2014 concerning the regulations behind the enrolment of non-Egyptian students in Egyptian schools, including granting them scholarships, and the enrolment of Egyptian students returning from abroad in Egyptian schools is the cornerstone of the regulation of pre-university education for Egyptians and non-Egyptians alike. Article 2 of the decree stipulates that non-Egyptian students may be admitted to Egyptian schools in accordance with the regulations set by the Minister of Education, thereby confirming the tangible existence of an ‘administrative license’ rather than an ‘inherent right’ to education for this segment of students. Article 6, contrarily, lists the segments of students that are exempt from this rule who can be admitted to public (government) schools, which includes students enrolled in scholarship programs offered by the Education Ministry; the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, or other specific entities; children of employees of the League of Arab States and its partner organizations; children of political refugees approved by the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Presidential Office of the Republic of Egypt; children of specific Arab and foreign nationalities; alongside other specific segments of students, with the Minister of Education having discretionary authority to delegate additional segments for reasons the minister deems appropriate. 

In addition to Resolution 284 of 2014, subsequent ministerial directives were issued, including the ministerial directive issued in November 2024 on the regulation of the enrollment of foreign students. These directives reinforced the link between school admission and legal residence designation; as they established a rule that foreign students, who do not fall exclusively within the categories specified in Article 6 of Decision 284, are not allowed to enroll in public schools, are required to only enroll in private schools, and must have proof of a valid residence permit in Egypt as a prerequisite for admission. Therefore, school enrollment became conditional on several factors based on the type of schooling allowed, in terms of public or private, according to nationality or legal residence designation, and in terms of permanent residence status. This rule effectively excluded children that are a part of forcibly displaced families due to their families’ inability to meet those conditions and/or afford the costs of private education.

Conversely, Decision 284 of 2014 and its supplementary guidelines allow certain groups to be admitted to public schools on an exceptional basis, including children of specific Arab nationalities, forcibly displaced students who can validate their refugee status, and students enrolled on state scholarships. This system based on exceptions does not change the general rule that makes public education a privilege for non-Egyptians rather than a right guaranteed to all. On the contrary, this rule makes belonging to an ‘exempt’ category a prerequisite for access to education, whether through asylum, scholarships, institutional networking, or individual decisions issued by the minister.

In July 2025, the Egyptian government announced, through a statement attributed to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and letters exchanged between official bodies and representatives of the Yemeni community, a decision to admit Yemeni students in public and private schools at all educational levels starting from the 2025-2026 academic year. This decision was presented as an exceptional response after the closure of a large number of Yemeni private schools during the previous year. In principle, this announcement places Yemeni students among the nationalities whose children can enroll in public education, but the material benefit of this exception remains conditional on fulfilling the same procedural requirements, primarily proof of legal residence or refugee status. As a result, this decision still leaves Yemeni children facing the same major obstacle as other forcibly displaced children residing in Egypt: the lack of a trajectory that guarantees education as a right independent of residence status. 

The current framework demonstrates a blatant legislative and procedural gap, whereas Articles 19 and 80 of the Constitution and the Convention on the Rights of the Child respectively provide for the unconditional guarantee of every child’s right to education. The system governing the education of non-Egyptians links this right to nationality, residence status, and inclusion in categories exempted by administrative decision. This key correlation between the ‘right to education’ and ‘legal residence status’ transforms schooling from an inherent right of every child on Egyptian soil to a conditional administrative privilege, while creating indirect discrimination against non-Egyptian children, including Yemeni children, in direct contradiction to Egypt’s constitutional and international obligations. 

Restrictions on Yemeni students’ Education in Public Schools: Procedural Deprivation and Economic Challenges

Enrollment regulations in public schools illustrate that the residency requirement has become a decisive gateway – and sometimes a major obstacle – to Yemeni students’ access to public education in Egypt, whether these students are registered with the UNHCR or not. Secondary schools, in accordance with the decisions of the Education Ministry and the circulars regulating the admission of non-Egyptian students, require proof of a valid residence permit from the Passport and Immigration Authority. In most cases, the registration card issued by the UNHCR or the ‘yellow card’ alone is not considered sufficient proof for school enrollment. This requirement is consistent with the general rule in Law No. 89 of 1960 on the entry and residence of non-Egyptians and the Prime Minister’s decisions regulating the status of foreigners. Nevertheless, this leaves forcibly displaced people and low-income immigrants unable to meet administrative and financial requirements, especially given the backlog of residency applications and the postponement of residency appointments for years.

Testimonies from forcibly displaced Yemeni citizens and human rights organizations demonstrate that this reality is clearly reflected in the way public schools treat forcibly displaced Yemeni families. The admission of Yemeni students to public schools translates in practice into a double obligation to pay residency fees for each member of the family, including children under the age of 16 who were previously exempt from obtaining independent residency.

According to human rights organizations and lawyers working with forcibly displaced people, residence fees based on asylum or student residence cards will increase to approximately US$150 per person in 2024, with residence renewal linked to foreign currency transfers and the payment of ‘status formalization’ fines for those whose status is overdue. For a low-income Yemeni family with more than one school-age child, these conditions materialize in the decision to enroll the family’s children in public education entailing unbearable financial burdens, thereby turning the ‘right to education’ into a source of economic pressure that threatens familial stability rather than a guarantee of child protection.

Munif, a Yemeni parent residing in Egypt, told the Refugee Platform in Egypt that his three children were unable to enroll in Egyptian public schools due to the requirement of valid residency and high fees imposed on families, following the decision to close Yemeni schools. 

Munif explained that he was asked to pay US$450 to obtain residency permits for his three children, in addition to more than 10,000 Egyptian pounds in fees for placement tests, which prevented Munif’s children from enrolling in public schools.

Yemeni parents told human rights organizations and media outlets that, when they went to the Passport and Immigration Authority to formalize their children’s permanent residence status, they were surprised when they were asked to pay fines for previous periods during which the children were legally exempt from the residency requirement (under 16 years of age), based on a broad administrative interpretation of decisions to formalize the status of non-Egyptians. This retroactive implementation, which links issuance or renewal of a child’s residence permit to the payment of fines for years during which the child was not originally required to obtain a residence permit, represents a sudden financial burden and undermines the principle of legal certainty. Moreover, this retroactive implementation transforms any attempt to formalize one’s legal status in preparation for school enrollment into a collision course with a system of escalating fines and fees.

In addition to the financial and procedural restrictions associated with residency, further obstacles arise at the level of execution within some schools. Parents report cases of school enrollment being refused despite the presentation of valid residency and complete documentation, under pretexts involving ‘no places’ or ‘overcrowding’, or requiring additional approvals from the relevant education administration. In the absence of an effective complaints  mechanism or clear guidelines to protect the right of foreign children to education, these practices open the door to de facto discrimination against Yemeni students and other forcibly displaced children, placing the burden of searching for  alternatives that are often more expensive like private schools or community schools threatened with closure solely on the family. 

The requirement of valid residency and its association with high fees and fines; the retroactive application of fines on low-income families; and institutional barriers on the grounds of overcrowding or lack of space are cumulative factors that lead to what can be described as the ‘forced exclusion’ of a large number of Yemeni students from the formal education system. As long as admission remains conditional on residency status that is difficult to obtain and on increasing financial burdens, a large number of Yemeni children will remain effectively out of the classroom. This development is in clear violation of Egypt’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Ahmed Saleh, a forcibly displaced Yemeni citizen and parent residing in Egypt, told the Refugee Platform in Egypt that he was forced to withdraw his 14-year-old son from an Egyptian public school because of repeated bullying at school.

Yemeni Community Schools, a Changing Legal Gray Area

Yemeni schools in Cairo and Giza were established as private educational initiatives founded by Yemeni investors in 2016 to provide an educational alternative for children of the forcibly displaced Yemeni community. These schools administered a standardized curriculum issued by the Yemeni Education Ministry, against the backdrop of destabilizing violence in Yemen that made it impossible for the students to return to Yemen to continue their studies. Officially, these schools were not established as ‘community schools’ or affiliated with the Yemeni embassy, nor were they under the supervision of the Egyptian Education Ministry; instead these schools were private community entities relying on licenses and approvals from Yemen directly, which included renting residential or administrative buildings that, in most cases, did not meet Egyptian educational licensing standards.

Official statements issued by the media attaché and spokesperson for the Yemeni embassy in Cairo indicate that these schools were licensed by the Yemeni Education Ministry without completing the licensing procedures with the Egyptian Education Ministry or being subject to the ministry’s technical and administrative supervision. This has led to repeated closure campaigns by neighborhood administrations, which consider them to be illegal establishments operating without the backing of Egyptian education law or private education regulations. According to an official statement, Yemeni schools represented a ‘temporary solution’ that was tolerated for a period of time so that students would not miss school years; before 2023-2024 when the Egyptian authorities began enforcing regulations and banned the continuation of unlicensed community schools including Yemeni, Sudanese, Libyan, and more. 

On the other hand, representatives of parents and parent councils assert that this description does not accurately reflect the reality of the relationship between schools and Egyptian authorities since 2018. The Yemeni International Schools’ Parents Council Head in Cairo explains that the schools have been operating under ‘the knowledge and approval’ of the relevant Egyptian authorities, through annual correspondence and letters exchanged between the embassy and the relevant ministries. They continue their explanation by linking the current crisis to a failure to renew these letters, or a change in the authorities’ approach to community schools, rather than to a lack of legal basis from the outset.

This discrepancy between the embassy’s official account and that of the Yemeni educational community reveals a legal gray area in which schools were operating on the basis of temporary procedural arrangements, or ‘de facto approval’, that did not amount to full licensing under Egyptian education law and regulations.

In light of this information, Yemeni community schools in Egypt can be described as ‘semi-official’ educational institutions. They are recognized by the Yemeni Education Ministry; their issued diplomas, degrees, and certificates are accredited by the embassy and used for student enrollment in universities inside as well as outside Yemen; but, at the same time, they lack full recognition and licensing from the Egyptian Education Ministry, and do not comply with the building, safety, and educational supervision standards stipulated in national legislation. This limbo has left thousands of Yemeni students dependent on an educational system that offers no guarantees of sustainability or legal protection within the host country. These students were the first to be affected when the Egyptian authorities decided to close unlicensed community schools without establishing clear transitional arrangements to guarantee their right to continue their education in official or recognized Egyptian schools.  

Closure Decisions Without an Alternative Plan

Since the fall of 2024, Egyptian authorities have been implementing a broad administrative campaign targeting foreign community schools. One of the most notable results of this campaign was the closure of private Yemeni schools in the governorates of Cairo and Giza, which directly affected thousands of Yemeni students enrolled in these schools. Yemeni press coverage indicates that the closure decisions began gradually in October 2024, then took on a more comprehensive approach by the end of that year to include all Yemeni schools operating on Egyptian territory.

In November 2024, Yemeni media outlets and news websites quoted Egypt’s Assistant Minister for Cultural Relations Yasser Shaaban as saying, during a meeting with Yemeni Ambassador to Cairo Khaled Mahfouz Bahah, that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry was “concerned” about  the continued operation of a number of Yemeni schools in the Giza governorate on the grounds that these schools had not completed the licensing procedures and were teaching the approved Yemeni curricula instead of the approved Egyptian curricula. An aspect which was considered by the Egyptian side to be in violation of the regulations surrounding educational supervision and the sovereignty of the national curriculum over educational institutions within the country. According to local Yemeni sources, the Yemeni Embassy was informed of the decision to close the schools verbally, without a decision being published in the official gazette or a detailed statement specifying the legal basis, which meant that the decision was implemented directly by local administrations and educational authorities.

Other Yemeni press reports confirm that the Egyptian authorities have proceeded to implement the decision by closing all Yemeni private schools operating in Egypt, in a move described by the same sources as ‘shocking’, as it has pushed approximately 6,200 Yemeni students out of the educational system overnight, without providing any clear transitional pathways to official or recognized Egyptian schools. According to these sources, the same instructions were reaffirmed at the start of the following school year in June 2025, based on the same justifications: failure to complete licensing procedures with the relevant Egyptian authorities, and failure of schools to teach the Egyptian curriculum or submit to the supervision of the Education Ministry with regard to academic content and educational standards.

These measures resulted in the near complete disruption of the educational process throughout Yemeni schools during the 2024-2025 academic year, and the threat re-emerged at the beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year as most of the schools remained closed and no approved Yemeni alternatives were licensed. This exposed thousands of Yemeni students to the direct risk of losing educational continuity and dropping out of school, including the possibility of missing an entire school year, specifically during critical, transitional stages like secondary school. In the absence of a binding transitional plan to ensure the integration of these students into Egyptian public or private schools according to transparent criteria, the closure decision has shifted from a regulatory measure aimed, in theory, at controlling the education system, to a material condition of tangible exclusion that undermines the very essence of the right to education for forcibly displaced Yemeni children and young people residing in Egypt. 

Broader Pattern of Crackdown: The Sudanese Context 

The targeting of Yemeni schools in Egypt is part of a broader pattern of dealing with unlicensed foreign community schools, which was previously clearly demonstrated in a Sudanese context throughout 2024 and 2025. In June 2024, Egyptian authorities closed all Sudanese schools operating in the country ‘until their legal status is formalized and new regulations are agreed upon’, including educational centers established independently by the Sudanese community to accommodate tens of thousands of forcibly displaced students fleeing the proxy war in their country of origin. In practice, the security services and local administration in Giza governorate implemented this policy through raids targeting at least five Sudanese schools (three in 6th of October City and two in the Faisal area) on the grounds that they were operating without a license and causing a disturbance to residents. This resulted in the schools’ complete closure, in a clear demonstration of a unified administrative approach towards community education institutions functioning outside the official framework.

Despite this crackdown, meetings between the Egyptian and Sudanese Education Ministries led to limited exceptional arrangements; with an agreement to temporarily reopen the Egyptian-Sudanese Friendship School for the 2024-2025 academic year and to hold Sudanese secondary school exams in a number of Egyptian schools in December 2024, hence ensuring a minimum degree of educational continuity for certain segments of the Sudanese student population. In September 2025, the Cultural Advisory Office at the Sudanese Embassy in Cairo issued a circular urging Sudanese schools to strictly adhere to the regulations and directives of the Egyptian educational authorities and not to announce any educational activities before the start of the school year, confirming continued coordination with the Egyptian side to reconcile the legal status of Sudanese schools in the country. 

Despite the cautionary tone of this circular, on November 13th, 2025, the Sudanese Friendship School announced the start of student registration procedures for the 2025-2026 academic year. Other Sudanese schools took similar steps without any official intervention to stop these activities, indicating a tacit practical arrangement that allowed for the continuation of a form of community education under a legally regulated umbrella.

These arrangements are pertinent given that the number of forcibly displaced Sudanese students in Egypt exceeds 350,000, according to press and human rights estimates, a number that is practically impossible to accommodate entirely within Egypt’s already overcrowded public schools. This makes the operation of community schools, even in a regulated or mitigated form, a realistic and indispensable solution to avoid a widespread educational crisis affecting the right to education of hundreds of thousands of children. 

The Yemeni Embassy in Cairo’s Position and Role 

The Yemeni Embassy in Cairo presented itself as a supervising entity rather than a decision-maker in the closure of Yemeni schools, confirming that it had taken action after the closures began alongside the Egyptian authorities to limit the impact on students and their forcibly displaced families. In this regard, Ambassador Khaled Mahfouz Bahah stated that the closure of schools in the middle of the academic year kept more than 6,000 Yemeni students at home and threatened to remove them from the education system altogether; especially given that Egyptian schools require valid temporary residence permits before enrollment, which is contrary to previous practice that allowed students to obtain residency based on their school registration certificates.

Consistent data from the embassy and Yemeni media reports indicate that the cultural attaché played a key coordinating role in this matter, liaising with the Egyptian Education Ministry and other parties to discuss transitional arrangements. These discussions involved a proposal to rent Egyptian educational buildings and use them in the evenings to complete the academic year’s proceedings for students from closed Yemeni schools, a model that was partially implemented during a previous school year. According to statements attributed to the cultural attaché, the Egyptian authorities expressed their initial willingness to allow one Yemeni school, considered to be the closest to meeting Egyptian requirements, to continue operating on a temporary basis, while proposing a list of conditions and criteria that must be met in any future attempt to establish or license schools affiliated with foreign communities. 

In response, the Yemeni Embassy emphasized in more than one statement that it was not involved in the decision to close the schools and denied reports that it had exerted pressure or issued recommendations to suspend school operations. The embassy clarified that Yemeni schools ‘are not subject to its administrative or educational supervision’ and that the decision to close them was part of a general Egyptian policy targeting unlicensed schools and educational centers affiliated with forcibly displaced communities, including Sudanese, Libyan, and more. The embassy’s role was limited to dealing with the repercussions of the decision and did not include participating in the decision’s formulation or implementation. According to the embassy’s account, the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Ministry tasked the diplomatic mission with ameliorating the conditions of affected Yemeni students by sending letters to educational administrations as well as public and private schools to allow, in theory, the admission of students based on their individual circumstances and residency status.

Nonetheless, these communications did not result in a comprehensive resolution that would reopen Yemeni schools or ensure an orderly transition for all students to stable educational alternatives. The results remained mostly at the level of individual accommodations or temporary solutions, falling short of a comprehensive solution to the crisis of thousands of students being excluded from the education system. Leaders within the Yemeni community and media reports indicated that tensions arose between school owners and the embassy that included accusations of negligence and licensing, which contributed to the failure to reach a coherent solution that would return students to their classrooms and shift the focus from managing a dispute between Yemeni parties to managing a crisis involving the right to education in the country of asylum or residence.

The UNHCR’s Position and Students Residing in Egypt’s Reality

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) plays an important role in facilitating access to education for refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt by seeking to integrate children into the formal education system and providing educational assistance through its partners. Nevertheless, this role remains limited due to major restrictions imposed by the local legal and procedural framework.

Under ministerial directives and decisions governing the admission of foreign students, forcibly displaced children from countries including Syria, Sudan, and South Sudan are allowed to enroll in public schools ‘on an exceptional basis’, provided they meet specific requirements including proof of refugee status and a valid residence permit or equivalent documents. This makes access to formal education contingent on residency status and documentation rather than on the child’s presence in the country.

In terms of direct support, UNHCR reports indicate that cash grants for education were provided to tens of thousands of forcibly displaced children in Egypt. Some 81,837 refugee and asylum-seeking children benefited from this assistance in 2024, as part of programs aimed at alleviating the costs of education, transportation, and school supplies for highly vulnerable families. Nonetheless, UNHCR’s own data confirms that nearly half of registered refugee children remained out of school by the end of 2025. This is often due to the absence or insufficiency of official documents related to registration and residence; the complexity of transferring enrollment; and the inability to meet the fees and expenses associated with attending public or private schools. 

This pattern is consistent with what international human rights organizations have documented. Reports have concluded that residency requirements, high fees and fines, and selective enforcement of ministerial directives at the administrative and school levels constitute real barriers to forcibly displaced children, including Yemenis citizens, enrolling in and continuing their formal education. In cases where community schools are closed, specifically the Sudanese and Yemeni contexts, these obstacles are exacerbated and the only path that thousands of forcibly displaced families relied on is closed. Moreover, without the provision of immediate, effective alternatives or organized mechanisms for transition to public schools, the crisis of regulation and licensing mutates into a direct threat to children’s right to education and educational continuity.

In this context, available records contain no public statement or detailed position issued by the UNHCR regarding the closure of Yemeni community schools in Egypt and no response mechanisms for affected students, unlike more explicit UNHCR positions issued in other cases related to education and protection. The absence of official clarification from the main UN protection agency leaves families directly faced with bureaucratic restrictions and residency policies without protective cover or a clear alternative framework. Furthermore, this absence widens the gap between the amount of support declared and validated in terms of numbers and programs, and the reality of students who find themselves out of the classroom because their schools are closed and/or they can’t complete the registration process in Egyptian schools. 

Educational and Social Repercussions of Closing Yemeni Schools in Egypt

The closure of Yemeni community schools in Egypt has disrupted the education of approximately 6,200 students, who suddenly found themselves out of class and without a clear transition plan to ensure the continuity of their education. The Yemeni ambassador himself describes this situation as leaving “more than 6,000 students at home”, an outcome that poses a real threat to their dropping out of the education system entirely especially at crucial stages like secondary school. This systemic interruption exacerbates the risk of an entire generation dropping out of standardized education altogether and strikes at the heart of the right to education as a fundamental and indivisible right. 

Attempts to integrate these students into Egyptian schools present a series of major obstacles. Forcibly displaced families are often required to convert their residency status to student residency or to formalize their existing residency status, with annual fees of up to US$150 per child under recent increases in residency fees and fines for foreigners. This amount is burdensome for forcibly displaced Yemeni families who often live on limited remittances or unstable incomes. Additionally, many students are required to pass equivalency, placement, or admission tests when transferring from the Yemeni to the Egyptian curriculum, which imposes on families, in addition to the official fees required for the evaluations, additional costs for private lessons to bridge gaps in content and curriculum differences. All this takes place against the backdrop of a long-standing and well-established national education crisis in Egypt linked to high student densities in classrooms and widespread reliance on private lessons for Egyptian students.

Munif tells the Refugee Platform in Egypt that the challenges have compounded in the case of his eldest son, aged 17, who has been forced to stay at home after completing all his previous schooling in Yemeni schools. According to Munif, the differences between the Yemeni and Egyptian curricula pose a major challenge in terms of his son’s ability to sit for the Egyptian secondary school exams.

The current structure of public schools further complicates these conditions. High densities and overcrowded classrooms in many governorates, as documented by press coverage, make it difficult for schools to accommodate large numbers of students coming from community schools that were closed en masse, especially if they need language support or help adapting to different curricula and assessment methods. Some forcibly displaced Yemeni families also express concerns that Egyptian high school diplomas will not be recognized in Yemen in the future to the same extent as Yemeni diplomas or that they will be denied government scholarships or spots reserved for Yemeni high school graduates in Yemen, adding another layer and dimension of uncertainty to the decision to transfer their children to the Egyptian system.

From a social perspective, the decision has caused widespread confusion and pressure within the forcibly displaced Yemeni community, as thousands of families find themselves facing a difficult choice: either bear the burden of accommodation and private or international school fees, which are often beyond their financial means, or accept that their children will remain at home for extended periods without access to formal education. Forcibly displaced families expressed concerns regarding the increasing economic pressures related to residence fees and fines; the incurred costs of commuting to find alternative schools; the accompanying psychological and emotional effects on the children who have lost their school routine, community, and friends; and the subsequent stress this puts on the parents and guardians who live with the constant threat to their children’s educational future.

Faced with this impasse, some parents resort to informal alternatives, such as enrolling their children in Yemeni educational centers operating under the umbrella of Egyptian learning centers or private tutoring centers, to avoid depriving them of any education at all. Nonetheless, these centers are not officially recognized by the Yemeni embassy or the Egyptian Education Ministry, which means that the certificates or ‘reports’ they issue are not equivalent to accredited certificates, degrees or diplomas. Furthermore, these centers do not guarantee students the ability to sit for official exams and/or complete their university education thereafter. This type of ‘temporary solution’ becomes a parallel path with no clear legal horizon, deepening the fragility of the right to education rather than rectifying it. 

Recommendations 

To the Egyptian authorities (Interior and Education Ministries):

• Enable all non-Egyptian children, including asylum-seeking, migrant, and refugee children of any nationality, to enroll in public education on equal footing with citizens, by enforcing the principle of the right to education through allowing students to enroll in schools using their United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card or proof of asylum application and without requiring a prior residence permit; specifically in light of the prolonged delays in issuing and renewing residence permits, which can take years and turn the residence requirement into a major obstacle to education.
• Issue a clear, written exemption from fines and delays resulting from policy changes or new administrative decisions for Yemeni students, with a special emphasis on children who were previously legally exempt from residency requirements (under the age of 16) that remains in line with the principles of legal certainty and non-retroactivity of financial restrictions affecting the most marginalized subgroups.
• Adopt urgent transitional arrangements based on the proposal to use Egyptian educational buildings in the evenings for Yemeni students affected by the closure of Yemeni schools, under the direct supervision of the Egyptian Education Ministry in terms of curriculum approval, regulating class sizes, and applying safety standards, therefore ensuring the regularity of study locations and the quality of educational processes while also not liminalizing the issue in a gray area between unlicensed ‘centers’ and formally licensed schools.

To the Yemeni Embassy and the Education Ministry in Yemen:

• Recognize that the education of Yemeni children in Egypt is an urgent human rights issue, and expedite the submission and completion of documents to bring Yemeni schools into compliance with Egyptian licensing requirements (including building coding, safety standards, educational supervision, class sizes, and curriculum approval), while announcing a clear timetable and a transparent plan that involves parental representation in the follow-up.
• Designate education as a priority of the Yemeni Embassy in Cairo and enter into high-level negotiations with the Egyptian Foreign Affairs and Education Ministries to develop a bilateral cooperation process that establishes a legal framework governing the work of Yemeni schools (current and future); while clearly defining the licensing conditions, the status of certificates and exams, joint supervision mechanisms, and guarantees that sudden closures without alternatives will not be repeated.

To the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):

• Exercise the UNHCR’s protective mandate in the area of education and break the silence on the closure of community schools relied upon by forcibly displaced people. Begin a formal dialogue with the Egyptian authorities that includes demanding recognition of UNHCR cards and asylum application documents as sufficient proof of school enrollment, or at least as a basis for granting temporary enrollment until residency status is settled, thereby preventing the right to education from being suspended pending the completion of stalled or slow administrative procedures.
• Conduct a comprehensive and systematic assessment of the needs of community schools and learning centers established by forcibly displaced communities (including Yemeni, Sudanese, Palestinian, Libyan and more schools), with the aim of setting binding minimum operational standards, in coordination with the national education authorities, to ensure the quality of education, the safety of buildings, the competence of teaching staff, and the legitimacy of the certificates they issue by providing technical and financial support to help these centers meet these standards, rather than simply closing them and excluding children from any educational network.