EIPR: At least 3 Syrians face deportation following arrests from Giza celebrations of Assad’s fall

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights said on Sunday that authorities have issued deportation orders for at least three Syrian nationals being held in the 6 October City 1st Police Station in Giza.

The Syrians were among dozens arrested in the hours following spontaneous gatherings in the city held to celebrate the end of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria in recent weeks.

EIPR said in a statement that around 30 Syrians are still held in the 6 October 1st and 2nd police stations, awaiting decisions from the Passports and Immigration Authority and the National Security Agency regarding their fate.

Lawyer Essam Ali of the Egypt Foundation for Refugee Rights, UNHCR’s legal partners, confirmed to Mada Masr that EFRR is following the case and that it includes a large number of Syrians, but declined to confirm whether deportation orders have been issued for any of those detained.

Syrian nationals celebrated in different areas in the city in the second week of December following news of the fall of the Assad regime and the release of thousands held in detention centers and prisons in Syria, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights lawyer Hazem Salah Eddin told Mada Masr, adding that security forces conducted dozens of arrests at or near the gatherings.

At least 19 detainees have already been released, he said, including six who were released after proving that they had valid residencies, and the rest following review from the Passports and Immigration Authority, according to Salah Eddin, who added that around 30 others are still detained pending further information, including at least three facing deportation.

Ali likewise said that a number of the detained Syrians were released. 

Most of those arrested have been held without a police report being filed against them, except for 10 people arrested at random in the early hours of December 9, according to the EIPR lawyer. The ten individuals were questioned before the Public Prosecution pending case 15147/2024 on charges that they did not hold a valid residency permit. The prosecution ordered their release on the same day pending approval from security and immigration authorities, which they are still awaiting as of the time of writing.  

Salah Eddin told Mada Masr he had confirmed that one of the Syrians facing deportation holds an active UNHCR blue card, meaning that his asylum application was approved.

“The deportation of any asylum seeker holding the yellow card, or holders of the blue card, whose asylum application was approved by UNHCR, violates Article 8 of the UNHCR statute, as well as the 1951 Refugee Convention signed by Egypt. It also violates article 91 of the Constitution,” the lawyer explained.

While UNHCR Egypt’s head of communications Christine Beshay declined to comment on specific cases, she said that holding a UNHCR ID is generally a protection from deportation by the government— one of the first rights offered to refugees and asylum seekers. 

In cases of a legal issue, Beshay explained, the UN agency steps in with the help of legal partners, provides legal support  and advocates for the concerned refugee or asylum seeker before the government.

The arrest of scores of Syrians comes as Egypt tightens the regulatory environment for foreign nationals in the country, including refugees, issuing new guidance around residency and a new law on foreign asylum. 

Sudanese asylum seekers who spoke to Mada Masr earlier this year noted cases in which Sudanese asylum seekers were deported back to Sudan amid the ongoing war.

Egypt has expressed support for Assad’s rule in Syria, presenting the argument that Assad represents a good solution for the Syrian conflict because he is seen as a symbol for “the cohesion of the national state,” in a time when it seemed like the Syrian opposition is fragmented and the Assad regime is offering no real alternatives.

Egypt officially downgraded diplomatic ties with Syria, however, in 2011, following a regional and international condemnation of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal repression of the Syrian revolution.