CAIRO -
Inside a popular café in downtown Cairo's familiar tanned lanes, a Sudanese asylum-seeker and another settled in Egypt met after years of traveling along the banks of the Nile Valley, and a third was waiting for a job.
The three were like a hypothetical example of hundreds of Sudanese and expatriates from neighboring African countries, brought together by the touching point of the Opera Square, close to the historic Ataba neighborhood known for its extensive commercial activity, and Abdel-Khalek Tharwat Street that cuts through the center of Cairo to end exhausted by constant traffic at that point known as “Hara.” Sufi".
A few years ago, Al-Sufi Quarter was teeming with talk of the Sudanese revolution that toppled the regime of President Omar al-Bashir, and served as a political salon that brought together different ideological orientations.
However, its conditions changed after its Sudanese pioneers experienced the fear and silence of their Egyptian comrades, and whispered conversations about the country's conditions, politics and economy.
In contrast to central Cairo, the Sudanese community is concentrated in several areas - according to Sudanese reports and conversations - the most famous of which are the al-Qubba and al-Abbasiya bridges (east of Cairo), the land of al-Liwa, Faisal and "Between al-Sarayat" in Giza Governorate (west of Cairo), in addition to other areas in the governorates of Alexandria and Sharqiya (north) and Aswan ( Far south on the border with Sudan).
harassment and denial
According to separate conversations conducted by Al Jazeera Net with Sudanese citizens, most of them agreed that they reside in Egypt as a second country that everyone is welcome to, although some of them - in addition to what was monitored by human rights reports and activists via Facebook - talked about security harassment for reasons related to political activity synchronized with the current revolutionary movement in Sudan, and others on issues of asylum and immigration, while others expressed their anger at some bullying.
This is reinforced by a Human Rights Watch report issued last week, which indicated that the Egyptian authorities arrested Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers, after they mobilized demonstrations in Cairo to protest issues including the lack of protection and delayed resettlement, as well as racist treatment by Egyptians.
They were also prosecuted for organizing a demonstration in front of their country's embassy to express their solidarity with the protests in Sudan against the political role of the army there. All those arrested were registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Egypt as refugees or asylum seekers, and they were later released without any charges being brought, according to Rights. Watch.
On the other hand, an Egyptian security source denied, last Wednesday, the mistreatment of Sudanese refugees, considering what was raised in this regard completely untrue, and describing Human Rights Organization as "loyal to the terrorist Brotherhood", which is the description given by the authority to the Muslim Brotherhood.
On the same day, he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and President of the Sudanese Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
According to the statement of the Egyptian presidency, the Egyptian side affirmed the permanent welcome to the sisterly Sudanese community in their second country and their inclusion in all aspects of care, while the Sudanese side, in turn, expressed appreciation for the generous care that the Sudanese community enjoys.
And yesterday, Saturday, the Consul General of the Republic of Egypt in Sudan, Ahmed Adly Imam, announced that President Sisi had directed to exempt the Sudanese in Egypt from the fines for renewing residency, while giving them a period of 6 months to adjust their situation.
Imam said that this directive comes against the background of the President’s reception of Al-Burhan last Wednesday, and based on the distinguished relations that bind the two brotherly countries, and in the interest of alleviating the burdens on the Sudanese citizen in his second country, and in the belief that relations between the two peoples are the safety valve of bilateral relations and the locomotive for their advancement.
conflicting numbers
There is no official census of the number of the Sudanese community in Egypt, but Lieutenant-General Al-Burhan stated, in a press conference after meeting Al-Sisi, that there are 4 million Sudanese, including 4,000 receiving scholarships and tens of thousands receiving treatment annually.
Cairo usually emphasizes the good treatment of refugees without discrimination, and on more than one occasion Sisi says that his country hosts 5 million refugees from various neighboring Arab and African countries, who do not reside in centers or shelter camps, he said.
While the latest statistics of the UNHCR, issued in January 2022, monitored Egypt hosting more than 270,000 registered asylum seekers and refugees from 65 different countries, the majority of whom are from Syria, followed by Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Yemen and Somalia.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - which records and documents cases of asylum seekers and refugees on behalf of the Egyptian government - indicates that there are about 52,000 registered Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt.
There are companies in Egyptian cities to arrange travel between Egypt and Sudan (Al-Jazeera)
in the mystic lane
In the heart of Al-Sufi neighborhood in central Cairo, Muhammad Al-Safi, in his twenties, stands behind a small glass box, selling Sudanese-made accessories, and around it a large gathering of Sudanese and Africans.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Safi - who completed his first year in Cairo from the city of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, which has been witnessing tribal conflicts for many years - says that he came to Cairo for residence first and then looking for an opportunity to travel and seek asylum abroad later.
However, the movement of trade and sales in Egypt, which is distinct from his country, prompted the young Sudanese to think about stability, saying, "I no longer have the desire to seek refuge abroad, like the majority of Sudanese in Egypt who submit asylum applications and then migrate to Europe."
In addition, Al-Safi believes that his Sudanese nationality means a lot to him and does not want to waste it, and he whispered about the harassment suffered by his Sudanese comrades and the bullying of some Egyptians.
At that moment, an Egyptian elderly man standing behind the Sudanese youth who was listening to his speech intervened, saying with a smile on his lips, "Son: we laugh and make fun of ourselves, and when we meet a dark-skinned Egyptian child, we say to him Bakkar (a cartoon character similar to the people of the Nuba in the south) from the door of Humor, not irony.
On the other side of the popular neighborhood, at a cafe known as the Sudanese Cafe, a young man from Khartoum sits next to a brother of his who had previously applied for asylum. We approached him after he asked for a soft drink from a woman who runs the place where two Sudanese and Egyptians work, and her dialect also seems to be Sudanese. nationality.
The young man is called Muhammad and works as a carpenter in his country, and when he came to Cairo he learned the art of arabesque (Islamic art that enters the furniture industry), but he is waiting for the end of the blessed month of Ramadan to return to his country again on a bus trip that takes a day and a half, referring in his speech to Al Jazeera Net to fears he fears From the re-closure of the "Artery of the North" road linking Egypt and Sudan.
Recently, the closure of "the artery of the North" by demonstrators led to a near complete paralysis in the trade movement between the two countries, due to the suspension and accumulation of hundreds of trucks coming from and heading to Egypt.
The Sudanese youth does not suffer from bullying or security harassment, saying that all they hope for in Egypt is to provide incentives, rights and security for Sudanese workers, explaining that among the expatriates there are those who work in an entity for more than 6 months, but in the end he does not get an increase or job insurance. .
Al-Sufi Quarter was not satisfied with gathering the Sudanese only, as 3 students studying at Cairo University from South Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia gathered them at the Sudanese Cafe. Before that, the repercussions of the Corona virus, and the unemployment and economic crisis Egypt suffered.
Many of the Sudanese arrivals spoke as smoothly as the Ataba market in the boom of its trade, but others residing in other parts of Cairo as asylum seekers had dozens of stories hiding between their chests, so silence and objection to speaking, even by phone, were the dominant feature of them, for reasons most notably fear of security monitoring.
A cafe for the Sudanese in central Cairo (Al Jazeera)
The four freedoms and safe passage
Despite the warmth of popular relations between the peoples of the two countries, the Sudanese are still suffering from Cairo's failure to activate the "Four Freedoms" agreement signed in 2004, which gives citizens of the two countries freedoms of mutual movement without a visa, work and residence without restrictions, as well as the ownership of land and real estate.
On more than one occasion, Egypt requested amendments to the terms of the agreement, some of which put restrictions on the entry of Sudanese into the country, in parallel with Sudanese accusations against Cairo of not activating them.
On the other hand, Egypt is no longer a safe transit gateway for asylum to Europe, following strict security controls and controls on the northern coasts of the country, after banning immigration boats to Europe, and the Northeast due to the extensive checkpoints along the Sinai Peninsula to the border with Israel, as well as the western after military tightening. Driven by instability in Libya.