Egypt/Sudan: Residency and employment rights and status of Sudanese in Egypt; visa requirements for Sudanese nationals entering Egypt

The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) publication World Refugee Survey 2000, provides the following information regarding Sudanese in Egypt:

Three million or more Sudanese live in Egypt, according to various estimates. It is unclear how many Sudanese remain in Egypt because they fear persecution in Sudan, versus how many reside in Egypt for economic and other reasons.

Before the late 1980s, Egyptian law made migration from Sudan to Egypt extraordinarily easy and automatically bestowed permanent resident status on Sudanese migrants. Egyptian officials even offered citizenship to many Sudanese residents. Egyptian authorities later tightened legal restrictions on Sudanese over the next ten years, however.

Restrictions on Sudanese and other refugees remained in place during 1999. Egyptian laws limited refugees' employment, barred them from government-subsidized health care and schools, and forced them to pay higher housing costs than Egyptian citizens. Many refugees worked in marginal jobs that were "insufficient to consider local integration as a viable option," UNHCR reported. ...

Thousands of destitute individuals living in refugee-like conditions, primarily Sudanese, have sought assistance from private relief agencies in Cairo. Churches and local humanitarian organizations in Cairo aided some refugee families awaiting UNHCR status determinations, which often took a year or more (2000).

In May 2000, according to the Middle East Times, Sudanese in Cairo were rounded up by Egyptian security forces (20 May 2000). According to the report:

Depending on whom one asks, some 2 to 5 million Sudanese fleeing the 16-year-old civil war and economic hardships at home have moved to Egypt in recent years.

The majority who arrived after June 1995 when Egypt imposed visa restrictions on Sudanese nationals are required to have a resident permit in order to stay in Egypt – only those who came before this date are exempted from visa requirements.

Egyptian immigration officials, however, scarcely extend visits beyond one month, encouraging many who do not wish to return to Sudan for a variety of reasons to ignore them and pray that they are not caught.

Until recently, the practice was tolerated by Egyptian officials who have been admitting into the country an average of 500 Sudanese every week since river transportation between the two countries was restored in 1998 (ibid.).

However, the report concludes by stating that "By mid-May, nearly all of those arrested, including some 48 Sudanese awaiting deportation in Aswan, had been released" (ibid.).

According to the September 2000 Travel Information Manual (TIM), Sudanese citizens (among others) require a visa for Egypt, costing approximately US$15 and must register at the office of Foreigners and Nationalities within 7 days of arrival (133-135). Furthermore, Sudanese nationals are specifically required to have their visas approved by the Egyptian State Security Authorities which, according to TIM, takes approximately one month (ibid., 135).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Middle East Times [Cairo]. 20 May 2000. Simon Apiku. "Sudanese Rounded Up in Cairo." [Accessed 7 Sept. 2000]

Travel Information Manual (TIM). September 2000. "Egypt." Amsterdam: TIM.

United States Committee for Refugees (USCR). 2000. World Refugee Survey. [Accessed 7 Sept. 2000]