{"id":16822,"date":"2026-01-20T17:36:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T15:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=16822"},"modified":"2026-10-24T14:58:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T12:58:40","slug":"syrians-in-egypt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/syrians-in-egypt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian Refugees in Egypt: Detention and Deportation Without Warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Wednesday, Sami Agha, a Syrian refugee who has lived in Egypt for more than ten years, was taken by surprise by a security campaign that raided a number of shops owned by Syrians in the First Settlement district of Cairo. Among them was his shop, which specialises in selling and renting wedding dresses and “evening wear”. Within minutes, the shock turned into a harsh reality, after security forces detained his brother, who has a visual impairment and works with him, along with three other Syrian workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

All of those detained, according to Agha, are registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and hold the yellow card<\/a> it issues, which is “a document granted to asylum seekers who have submitted their applications and presented valid identity documents”, and is considered official proof of their legal status as “asylum seekers”. The only exception was one worker who had recently cancelled his card in preparation<\/a> for voluntary return to Syria, after closing his file with UNHCR and obtaining an exit permit from the Egyptian authorities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His brother’s card had expired in April last year and he tried to renew it, but his appointment with UNHCR is still set for 26 January this month, because of the heavy pressure on the agency in Egypt. Even so, this wait did not prevent him from being detained, together with his colleagues, along with 23 other Syrian workers in the same area. They were held at the police station, then brought before the prosecution the following day without lawyers present, before being transferred on Friday to the General Administration of Passports, Immigration and Nationality in the Abbasiya district of Cairo, as Sami confirms to Zawia3.<\/span><\/p>\n

Agha says: “Until now, security has refused to allow us to contact our detained relatives. One of the officers demanded that we go back to our country. We tried to contact UNHCR without any response, and we do not know the fate of my brother and his colleagues. We fear they will be deported, even though they have families and children living in Egypt”.<\/span><\/p>\n

In another account, Mohamed Adib, a Syrian refugee living in Egypt, tells of the recent detention of his nephew in the Al-Salam First district because his residency had expired, even though he holds the yellow asylum card and is officially registered with UNHCR; but he was not carrying it at the moment of his detention, and he had not been able to obtain an appointment to renew his residency.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mohamed talks about the moment the family received the news and the race against time that followed, as they rushed to send the passport, the asylum card and the expired residency card to the police station, in an attempt to prove that the young man had entered the country legally and was waiting for an official appointment that he had been unable to obtain.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mohamed explains to Zawia3 that his nephew’s residency has been expired since 2023, while the last residency card he held dates back to 2022, a situation common among many refugees whose residency renewals have been blocked by postponed appointments and administrative complications, not by any desire to break or evade the law. He asks bitterly: will the young man’s fate be deportation, or release after his papers have been checked? He adds that this question does not concern his nephew alone, but hundreds of families who live the same anxiety every day, amid the silence of the institutions concerned and UNHCR’s delayed responses, despite his repeated attempts to make contact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amer Ibrahim also recounts that he complied with the official procedures and waited his turn at UNHCR, and obtained an appointment to renew his residency after three years, believing that compliance would give him a measure of security. But this feeling collapsed at the beginning of January this month, when a security force detained him as he was walking in the street.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amer tells Zawia3: “They detained me and I remained in detention for about ten days”, recalling an experience he described as humiliating. He was not alone; many found themselves stuck between slow procedures that are never completed and detention campaigns that do not recognise appointments. He recounts with sorrow how his father, who is in his sixties, was detained at his workplace, despite holding a valid passport and having an appointment to renew his residency, considering that these two incidents were enough to undermine the sense of security of his family, which has lived in Egypt for more than a decade.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over time, according to Amer, fear turned into a daily feeling hanging over the lives of Syrians in Egypt: “Everyone is afraid; no one dares to leave their home or even to return to it”. He explains that most detentions affect those who do not hold valid residency, and that the majority are not deported, but go through a harsh experience of detention and intimidation that leaves a deep mark even after release. He believes that responsibility for what is happening lies with UNHCR, while at the same time calling on the Syrian embassy in Cairo to intervene and to engage seriously with UNHCR, because “what is happening has become unbearable”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For her part, Nesreen El-Qazzaz, a Syrian refugee, believes that the repeated talk of “regularising status” is not reflected in the daily reality of Syrians. According to her account, obtaining or renewing a registration card now takes a year or two, without any real recognition of residency renewal appointments or consideration for the length of waiting periods. She points out that detentions are not limited to those who lack papers, but sometimes affect those holding regular documents, amid widespread ambiguity and a constant fear of deportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of her personal experience, she says that she has been waiting since last October, without result, for the “proof of registration” required to renew her residency, and then entered the stage of waiting for security approval more than fifteen days ago. She adds to Zawia3: “We have never failed to respect the host country or its laws, but we need clear and accessible laws so that we can comply with them and live legally”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nesreen recalls a scene that never leaves her memory, when she witnessed a wide detention campaign in a Cairo neighbourhood that did not spare a Syrian woman in her twenties who was carrying her baby. She says: “They took her, and I don’t know whether she had left other children at home, or whether she had gone out to buy food or medicine”.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the same context, eyewitnesses from the Syrian community in Egypt told Zawia3 that 8 January saw a wide security campaign targeting Syrians in a number of areas, which resulted in the detention of large numbers of young men from inside shops and factories, especially in the city of 10th of Ramadan, because their residency had expired or because they were not carrying residency papers or the yellow card at the time of detention.<\/p>\n

The campaigns did not stop there, but extended to multiple governorates and districts, including 6th of October, Badr City, Madinaty, Gesr El-Suez, Obour, Shorouk, First Settlement, Nasr City and downtown Cairo, as well as areas in Damietta Governorate, and Shatee El-Nakheel and the Asafra district in Alexandria, in addition to detentions in the city of Hurghada, specifically in the El-Kawthar and El-Sentral El-Siyahi districts. The witnesses affirmed that the pace of the campaigns in Hurghada was less intense than in Greater Cairo, but that they are still continuing.<\/p>\n

The witnesses point to a state of intense tension prevailing within the Syrian community, amid constant fear and apprehension, as the campaigns continue to varying degrees, their geographical scope widens, and the criteria for detention and its duration remain unclear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recommended reading:<\/b> Egyptians in Assad’s prisons: will they return after the fall of the regime?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n


\nUndeclared government decisions<\/b><\/h1>\n

The roots of the crisis go back to August 2024, when the Egyptian authorities<\/span> cancelled<\/span><\/a> the exemption of Syrians from visa fees and imposed a fee of USD 25, even on holders of Egyptian or European residency. In parallel, new conditions were imposed on the renewal of tourist residency for foreigners, which pushed many Syrians to look for alternatives, such as the asylum card or investment residency, at a time when the activity of visa brokers and of irregular migration to Libya and from there to Europe increased, amid growing anxiety within the Syrian community.<\/span><\/p>\n

On 14 December 2024,<\/span> a decision was issued<\/span><\/a> cancelling all the exemptions that had been granted to Syrians holding residency in countries such as the United States, the Schengen states, Britain and Canada, making prior security clearance a mandatory condition for entering Egypt. The decision was applied immediately and without announcement, which led to Syrians being refused entry and sent back from airports. Meanwhile, Al Arabiya channel quoted unnamed sources as saying that<\/span> the security services<\/span><\/a> had begun reviewing the residency of Syrians inside the country, and that an official circular had been distributed to the security bodies in the middle of the same month ordering the suspension of residency renewals until further notice and linking any renewal to security approval.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cost of security approval for Syrians to enter Egypt varies according to its type, and ranges approximately between USD 1,150 and USD 2,300 or more, through travel agencies and intermediaries working with the security services, according to the<\/span> platform<\/span><\/a> “Saheeh Masr”.<\/span><\/p>\n

On 29 December 2024, the civil aviation authorities issued<\/span> instructions<\/span><\/a> not to allow Syrian passengers arriving in Egypt from any country in the world to be accepted, restricting entry to holders of temporary residency visas for non-tourist purposes and imposing administrative fines on airlines that violate them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2014, successive security decisions and instructions have been issued informally through the General Administration of Passports, Immigration and Nationality, according to human rights organisations. The Refugees Platform had<\/span> documented<\/span><\/a> the issuance of an internal decision, following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the armed opposition groups’ takeover of power on 8 December 2024, ordering the deportation of any Syrian detained for any reason, regardless of their legal status.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later, a new<\/span> measure<\/span><\/a> was approved suspending all exemptions relating to the entry of Syrians, except for the wife of an Egyptian man or the husband of an Egyptian woman, on condition that the marriage contract had been officially registered before 7 December 2024. The decision also provided for Syrians who had previously obtained entry approval to be granted residency for one non-renewable month instead of three months.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since 2017, the authorities had<\/span> imposed<\/span><\/a> financial fines on Syrians for delays in renewing residency, amounting to about EGP 1,700 for the first three months and EGP 500 for each additional month, in addition to a fee of EGP 5,000 for each year of delay in obtaining a residency card for the first time.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of Syrian refugees registered with it in Egypt as of 31 March 2025 stood at about 139,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recommended reading:<\/b> Who is drawing the road to the new Syria?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n


\nAsylum issues<\/b><\/h1>\n

Nour Khalil, director of the Refugees Platform in Egypt, believes that what is happening represents a nationwide security campaign, carried out on orders from the top and not limited to specific areas. He points out that 2024 saw fundamental shifts in the entry and residency policies for Syrians, referring to a research paper issued by the platform that addressed these changes, especially after the fall of the Assad regime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Khalil affirms that the government has in effect stopped issuing and renewing tourist residency for Syrians, and that appointments to renew asylum residency have become extremely distant, reaching 2029 in some cases, even though this residency is legally renewed every six months.<\/span><\/p>\n

He explains that these measures have placed thousands of refugees in an “irregular” situation as a result of administrative decisions taken by the state itself, for which they were then punished. He points out that waiting for an official appointment to renew residency is in principle a legal status, not a crime warranting detention, noting that the prosecution often decides to release detainees, but they are returned to police stations and held, and sometimes expulsion orders are issued against them without clear procedures.<\/span><\/p>\n

He stresses that the latest campaign did not distinguish between a refugee, an asylum seeker or a holder of investment, study or marriage residency, considering that what is happening is a discriminatory measure based on nationality, and not merely “administrative control”. He explains that among the detainees are people holding marriage residency valid for five years, and others who have actual investments in Egypt and were in the process of changing their type of residency. He notes that what happened cannot be described as a general campaign against foreigners, but rather as a campaign specifically targeting Syrians, as the detentions took place in neighbourhoods known for their dense presence, with no similar cases recorded for other nationalities during the same period.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the state’s justifications, Khalil points out that the usual official response is the pressure on the Passports Authority, but he affirms that this does not justify the absence of any alternative measures, such as issuing temporary official certificates that protect people from detention and give them access to basic services until their residency is renewed, which has not happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

He notes that these policies have created widespread fear and terror among Syrians, as many now avoid going to renew their residency for fear of rejection or of receiving an “expulsion stamp”, in addition to the high costs associated with residency, particularly for families. He adds that the delay is not limited to residency alone, but also includes voluntary return procedures, which require closing the asylum file and obtaining multiple approvals that take a long time and are costly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The director of the Refugees Platform affirms that politicising asylum issues is a grave violation of international norms and conventions, whether the aim is to pressure refugees to return or to use them as a political bargaining chip. He points out that some refugees may be able to return, but others come from areas where conflict is still ongoing or whose infrastructure has been completely destroyed, and have no safe option for return.<\/p>\n

He warns of the serious social effects of the campaign, explaining that it does not only lead to the break-up of refugee families, but also affects Egyptian families, given the high rates of marriage between Syrians and Egyptians. He affirms that detaining one of the parents in practice means leaving Egyptian children without care, a violation that does not affect refugees alone but extends to Egyptian citizens.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Khalil adds that over the past two weeks the Refugees Platform in Egypt has monitored a marked rise in hate speech against Syrians on social media, led by organised accounts, affirming that these campaigns are not spontaneous and often coincide with a security context, which points to a clear link between online incitement and detentions on the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recommended reading:<\/b> False nationalism and an economic illusion: demands to deport refugees in Egypt<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n


\nIllegal measures<\/b><\/h1>\n

From a legal standpoint, holders of the “<\/span>yellow card<\/span><\/a>“, or the “asylum seeker card”, enjoy the protection established under the<\/span> 1951 Convention<\/span><\/a> relating to the Status of Refugees, as well as the<\/span> Convention<\/span><\/a> of the Organisation of African Unity of 1969, which provides them with explicit protection from detention and deportation, according to human rights lawyer and Refugees Platform consultant Halim Heneish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heneish explains that the agreement concluded between the Egyptian state and the United Nations also guarantees them the right to benefit from the services of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which was confirmed by the<\/span> Law<\/span><\/a> on the Asylum of Foreigners No. 164 of 2024, which explicitly prohibited the deportation of refugees and asylum seekers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heneish tells Zawia3: “The deportation of a refugee is permissible only in specific and exclusive cases relating to the commission of crimes affecting public security or terrorism cases, in accordance with what international conventions and Egyptian law stipulate. Failure to renew an asylum card is not a criminal offence; at most it entails an administrative measure, and in no way does it constitute a legal justification for arrest or detention”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The human rights lawyer describes the campaigns of arrest against refugees for not holding valid residency as “illegal” measures that contradict Egypt’s international obligations and its national legislation, considering that they are used as a means of pressure to push refugees and migrants to leave the country under labels such as “voluntary return”, even though the surrounding circumstances make this return forced in effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, he criticises the performance of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in dealing with the crisis, affirming that its primary role is protection and that its interventions in documented incidents have not been sufficient or decisive, and calling for public and effective action, through direct communication with the Egyptian government and the announcement of official meetings to discuss these violations.<\/span><\/p>\n

For his part, Mahmoud Shalaby, Egypt and Libya researcher at Amnesty International, affirms that campaigns to detain migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt are not new: between 2023 and 2024 the organisation documented the detention of large numbers of Black migrants in Cairo and Giza, in discriminatory targeting based on skin colour, adding that the news currently circulating indicates that these practices have expanded to include Syrians.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shalaby explains that these campaigns are accompanied by a series of grave violations, including arbitrary detention, as some of those detained are held without being brought before the prosecution until they are deported, and without being able to challenge in court the legality of their detention or their deportation orders. He points out that even in cases where the prosecution decides to release them, the police continue to hold people pending their deportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

He tells Zawia3: “The most serious violation is the breach of the principle of non-refoulement, through the deportation of Syrians to Syria without an individual risk assessment, despite the continuing instability there and the fact that risks vary according to people’s identities and affiliations”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shalaby notes that the detention of people holding cards issued by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees represents an extremely serious development, as it reflects the absence of the minimum protection for documented refugees and the Egyptian government’s failure to respect its international obligations, in particular the 1951 Convention and its Protocol.<\/span><\/p>\n

He stresses that the Egyptian government must immediately stop detention campaigns based solely on legal status, affirming that residency violations, if any, must be dealt with as administrative violations and not as criminal offences, with proportionate penalties that do not include detention or deportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recommended reading:<\/b> Protection or restrictions? Widespread criticism of Egypt’s new asylum law<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n


\nThe principle of “non-refoulement”<\/b><\/h1>\n

Karim Ennarah, director of research at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, believes that since the end of 2024 the country has been witnessing an acute crisis in the refugee protection system, amounting to the collapse of the minimum protection to which the state had committed for many decades. He explains that this system was based on the state delegating to UNHCR the determination of refugee status and the granting of residency, guaranteeing protection from deportation to countries where refugees are exposed to danger, but this foundation has been dealt a knockout blow over the past two years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ennarah tells Zawia3: “Organisations working in the field of protection, alongside the Egyptian Initiative, have documented over two years a broad security campaign targeting refugees and migrants in general, without distinguishing between registered and unregistered people, or between residency holders and those without official papers, with a clear focus previously on Black people”.<\/span><\/p>\n

He adds that the Initiative has documented a marked rise in cases of arrest, detention and deportation, including of registered refugees holding valid residency, with official papers repeatedly ignored, referring to a letter sent by a number of UN Special Rapporteurs to the Egyptian government on 13 January 2026, in which they warned of the deterioration in the conditions of refugees, based on documentation by human rights organisations and UNHCR data.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ennarah affirms that the UN letter pointed out that waiting periods for residency have exceeded a thousand days, which places refugees in a situation of extreme vulnerability, especially as detentions continue on the pretext of residency violations. It also noted that the number of detainees during the first quarter of 2025 reached about 1,120 migrants and refugees, compared with a previous average of 250 people, alongside a 150% rise in deportations of documented refugees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ennarah concludes that the deportation of people with sound legal status is a flagrant violation of the principle of non-refoulement, warning that the continuation of this approach represents a radical and unprecedented shift in modern Egypt’s treatment of refugees, and may extend to other nationalities.<\/span><\/p>\n

A group of UN Special Rapporteurs had, in a memorandum<\/a> dated 13 January this month, levelled scathing criticism at the Egyptian government over what it described as systematic violations of the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, including deportation and arbitrary detention, as well as practices suspected of contravening the principle of non-refoulement, one of the firmly established pillars of customary international law.<\/p>\n

The memorandum affirmed that these concerns do not represent an isolated incident, but follow on from warnings previously raised in a letter dated 17 December 2024, noting that the available information indicates that the violations are continuing, with the grave risks they entail, including human trafficking and multiple forms of exploitation, particularly against women and children. It called on the Egyptian government to take immediate interim measures to stop these practices and to ensure accountability should they be proven.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this tangled context, Syrian refugees in Egypt find themselves stuck between shifting, undeclared policies and loose administrative and security measures that do not clearly distinguish between those who break the law and those who abide by it, nor between a refugee whom circumstances have forced to wait and a resident seeking to regularise their legal status. As the security campaigns expand and transparency about the rules of entry and residency remains absent, the sense of fear and insecurity deepens within the Syrian community, for which Egypt was for many years a relative refuge from the inferno of war and turmoil.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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