Update: Foreign Ministry claims Michele Dunne denied entry for no visa

Egypt’s Foreign Affairs Ministry stated on Sunday that American researcher and former diplomat, Michele Dunne, was denied entry to the country on Friday night because she had no visa.

The statement asserted Dunne had applied for a non-tourist visa at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington and that documents and photographs were requested from her. However, Dunne suddenly withdrew her passport and decided to apply for a visa on entry, which can only be obtained for purposes of tourism, the statement added.

Earlier on Sunday, Dunne wrote on her Twitter account, “US citizens are allowed to obtain a visa at the airport for business as well as tourism in Egypt. I checked conference on the entry form.”

Dunne was denied entry after her arrival at Cairo Airport on Friday night. She was invited by the Egyptian Council on Foreign Affairs to attend a conference, scheduled this week, on Egypt’s foreign relations in light of current events.

Dunne spoke to Mada Masr while waiting in the airport to be deported. She expressed her surprise at the ease with which any voices opposing the current regime can be banned from the country, especially as she visits Egypt regularly and has never committed any violations in the past.

Dunne said security forces at the airport informed her, while she was finalizing procedures for entry, that she was banned from entering the country, without giving her any reasons for this decision, which she said is “arbitrary.”

The state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper quoted security officials at the airport saying Dunne is on the list of those banned from the country, based on a decision by National Security.

Dunne is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the founding director of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. She is also a former US diplomat, serving as a Middle East specialist at the US State Department from 1986 to 2003. She worked at the American Embassy in Cairo, among other posts. 

“Some Egyptians complain I don't list enough to pro govt views. When I accept invite to conf of pro govt group they deny me entry. Go figure,” she wrote on her Twitter account following her deportation.

Mohamed Ibrahim Shaker, vice president of the Egyptian Council on Foreign Affairs, told Mada Masr that the council had invited Dunne to the conference, titled, “Egypt and the world: A new era,” as an attempt to alter her “negative views towards Egypt.”

“This is a security decision that we won’t interfere in, because the security apparatus knows better about these situations and is keen on the stability of the country,” Shaker said.

This is the latest in a series of incidents in which critical voices and intellectuals have been denied entry to the country in recent months. 

Earlier this month, Oscar-nominated director Hani Abu Assad was stopped at Cairo airport, after arriving to shoot scenes from his upcoming movie. His award-winning Palestinian cinematographer, Ehab Assal, was denied entry and deported to Jordan.

In August, Human Rights Watch’s Executive Director Kenneth Roth and the organization’s Middle East and North Africa Director Sarah Leah Whitson were also turned back at the airport. They were coming to present a report condemning the killing of protesters during the dispersal of pro-Muslim Brotherhood protests in August 2013. 

In her latest opinion article, published by the Qatari-based Al Jazeera website, Dunne argued that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's "scorched earth" tactics in his declared war on terrorism could further fuel radicalization.