Human Rights Watch (HRW), a non-governmental organization concerned with human rights, stated on Sunday that “the Egyptian police arbitrarily arrested at least 30 Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers during raids in December 2021 and January 2022 and subjected some to forced physical labor and beatings.”

According to three Sudanese refugees and a Cairo-based civil society group interviewed by HRW, the police carried out raids on December 27th and January 5th under almost identical circumstances. Plainclothes police arbitrarily arrested dozens of asylum seekers, including well-known activists, from their houses, cafes, streets, and community centers.

The organization stated that the refugees were taken to a security facility where the police forced them to “unload boxes labeled ‘Tahya Masr (Long live Egypt)’ from large trucks into warehouses, using batons to beat those who they claimed were not working hard enough and insulted them with racist remarks.”

One of the men forced to transport the boxes said that a police officer told him, “You lazy Sudanese need to work because you are making a lot of problems and noise in Egypt.” Another man said the police kicked him and beat him with their hands and rubber batons, claiming he was not working fast enough.  

After being forced to work for hours without pay, the police released all the detainees at a highway intersection in East Cairo, after confiscating their mobile phones and SIM cards. Police also warned refugees against reporting the incident to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and threatened them with re-arrest. Among them was a man who said police threatened him with fabricating a drug case against him.

Last February, the Refugees Platform in Egypt (RPE) published 15 documented testimonies from Sudanese refugees residing in Cairo, stating that they were abducted by security forces and forced to work in a “warehouse” they could not locate, then left in the desert. They were compelled to work under beating and threats.

Human Rights Watch stated that it wrote to the UNHCR in Egypt on February 22nd, requesting a comment on the detention of Sudanese refugee activists in Egypt, but did not receive any response.

Human Rights Watch clarified that some of the targeted individuals had mobilized support for protests in May and August of 2021 outside the UNHCR office in Cairo over “harassment and racial treatment by Egyptians, lack of protection, and delays in resettlement.” Last May, they also organized a protest in front of the Sudanese embassy in Cairo in support of protests in their homeland.

The three refugees separately each told HRW that National Security Agency (NSA) officers in Cairo had summoned them twice during 2021. The three men said that sometimes officers kept them for hours and threatened to deport them to Sudan if they continued to mobilize Sudanese community protests in front of the UNHCR office or if they reported abuses to UNHCR. They said the security agency had tried to recruit them as informants about Sudanese community activities, which they refused.

Moreover, the organization confirmed that the Egyptian police did not present arrest warrants during their raids, and the NSA did not mention them in the subpoenas. It added that those detained were registered with the UNHCR as refugees or asylum seekers and were later released, with some activists being held for a week or more, all without charge.

Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, stated: “Refugees, like everyone else, have the right to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly,” he added that “Egypt’s Public Prosecutor should investigate and hold accountable those responsible for arbitrary arrests and mistreatment of Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers.”

As of January 2022, more than 52,000 Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers have been registered with the UNHCr in Egypt, while official estimates suggest that between two million and five million Sudanese nationals are living in Egypt.

Activists and human rights groups regularly criticize the Egyptian authorities for the mistreatment, discrimination, and racism faced by Sudanese and sub-Saharan African migrants in the country.

“Silencing activists will not solve the issues of the Sudanese refugee communities, whom authorities should protect from abuse,” Stork said. “Egypt needs to uphold its international obligations, which include eliminating discrimination and protecting basic rights for refugees as well as others.”