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UN experts* expressed concern about an escalating campaign of deportations, arbitrary arrests, and human rights violations targeting refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in Egypt, including individuals at risk of human trafficking, in a joint statement last Friday.
In their statement, experts confirmed the materiality of the conditions the Refugee Platform in Egypt documented in RPEGY’s report ‘No Safe Haven’, which chronicled the unprecedented security crackdown targeting forcibly displaced people residing in Egypt. These experts’ statements also expressed concern regarding the escalating campaign of deportations, arbitrary arrests, and human rights violations targeting refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in Egypt, including vulnerable subgroups at risk of human trafficking.
Experts stated: ‘We remain deeply concerned about the circumstances of refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt. Arbitrary arrests and deportations continue, with refugee communities being targeted at their homes, workplaces, and even in refugee-run service centers.’
Experts noted that Egypt’s new asylum law, ratified by the Egyptian authorities on December 16th, 2024, raised concerns from the outset as the new asylum law contained provisions that would undermine the rights and protection of forcibly displaced people. These concerns escalated in October 2025 due to a significant increase in reports of arrests and deportations, particularly of forcibly displaced Sudanese citizens, the majority of which were based on allegations relating to residence permits. Reports also indicate that these deportations were carried out without individual assessments that determine the risk of refoulement.
In recent months, these experts received reports of a sharp increase in the detention and deportation of forcibly displaced Syrian citizens, including entire families, many of whom were detained based on allegations that they did not have valid residence permits. These allegations were leveraged in spite of the fact that some of those detained, forcibly displaced Syrian citizens were registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or held documents proving that they were in the process of renewing their permits.
The experts’ aforementioned statement continued on to emphasize that ‘this climate of fear exposes refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants to extreme vulnerability. With limited access to sustainable livelihoods, many of them become more vulnerable to exploitation, including trafficking for sexual exploitation—especially women and girls—forced labor, and forced domestic service’.
These experts also reminded Egyptian authorities that ‘any decision to return or deport must be based on an individual assessment of protection needs and human rights obligations. This includes strict adherence to the principle of non-refoulement, consideration of the best interests of the child, the principle of non-discrimination, and the right to family life’.
The experts’ statement comes amid an ongoing security crackdown against forcibly displaced people residing in Egypt; with no regard for the risks that deportation poses to these individuals’ lives and no regard for the provisions of international as well as domestic laws and treaties that require forcibly displaced people to be treated with dignity.
Furthermore, the Egyptian authorities treat detained people inhumanely; a pattern of behavior which has led to at least three deaths already, documented by the Refugee Platform in Egypt between August 2025 and February 2026, and that requires urgent intervention by the Egyptian authorities.
Consequently, the Refugees Platform in Egypt demands the following:
- Immediately stop campaigns targeting forcibly displaced people residing in Egypt
- Release detained forcibly displaced people, specifically those with documentation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and halt any plans for forced deportation
- Investigate any subsequent transgressions that accompanied arrests and violations in places of detention
- Allow UN and human rights organizations access to areas where forcibly displaced people and foreigners are detained
- Stop violations and administrative practices that subject forcibly displaced people to conditions of forced irregularity that aim to coerce forcibly displaced people to leave Egypt under the guise of ‘voluntary return’
*Experts:
Siobhan Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children.
Graeme Reid, Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Gehad Madi, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.
Claudia Flores (Chair), Ivana Krstić (Vice-Chair), Dorothy Estrada Tanck, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi – Task Force on Discrimination against Women and Girls.
