Human Rights Watch documents arrests, forced labor of dozens of Sudanese refugees in Egypt

The Egyptian police arbitrarily detained at least 30 Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers during raids in December and January, some of whom were subjected to physical abuse and forced labor, Human Rights Watch said.

“All of those arrested were registered with the [UN refugee agency] UNHCR either as refugees or asylum seekers and were eventually released without charge,” said an HRW statement on Sunday.

Citing three Sudanese refugees and a member of the Cairo-based African Refugee Rights, HRW documented the arrest of 24 Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers, including activists, on December 27. They were taken from their homes, from cafes, off the streets and from community centers in Nasr City, Cairo.

“Some of the activists targeted had mobilized protests at the Cairo headquarters of UNHCR over harassment and racist treatment by Egyptians, a lack of protection, and resettlement delays. They also organized a demonstration at the Sudanese embassy in Cairo to express solidarity with protests in Sudan against the military’s political role there,” the statement added.

According to the same HRW sources, the arrested refugees were transferred to a security facility and forced to unload boxes bearing the Tahya Masr fund slogan from large trucks into warehouses. The police used batons to beat some of them “for not working hard” and insulted them with “racist remarks,” before dropping them off the next day at a road not far from the security facility, having confiscated their phones and SIM cards.

The sources added that the incident was repeated on January 5 with 19 Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers, including seven of those who were detained during the first incident.

African Refugee Rights activist Alfred Dejansen confirmed the incidents documented by HRW to Mada Masr, adding that he witnessed the arrest of 10 Sudanese nationals, all members of the same family, who were sleeping on the street near the UNHCR headquarters since they were unable to afford payments for a rental property. 

The police dropped them off in a desert area, but they were able to return the next day with the help of locals who gave them money, only for the police to arrest them again and once more leave them in the desert.

HRW cited three refugees as saying that members of the National Security Agency in Cairo summoned them twice in 2021 and held them for hours. They were also threatened with deportation to Sudan if they continued to mobilize Sudanese community protests in front of the UNHCR office or to report any violations committed against them. The organization also quoted them as saying that the security agency tried to recruit them to report on the activities of the Sudanese community, but that they refused.

The threat of deportation is a common practice against refugees of all African nationalities in Egypt, Dejansen added, noting that he received similar threats.

HRW’s statement came a day after Amnesty International warned about the possible deportation of 50 Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers from Egypt.

A lawyer specializing in legal support for refugees told Mada Masr on the condition of anonymity that the pursuit of Sudanese refugees by the police  is a common occurrence in Egypt as part of racist practices against black refugees in particular. 

The lawyer referred to arrests that took place on the anniversary of the January revolution, as well as a wave of arrests that followed protests of the killing of a Sudanese child at the hands of his neighbor. Seventy Sudanese nationals were arrested in that wave, ten of whom remain in detention facing protest charges.