Cairo -
The decision of the Egyptian authorities, to extend the period of permitting the residence of the Sudanese to adjust their situation for a new 6 months, renewed questions about the reasons and repercussions of the decision on the conditions of the Sudanese community, and whether Egypt has become a stable for them and not a station for migration to the north, and what are the obstacles to the first period, which lasted 6 months, which began in April / last April?
Egypt agreed to extend the deadline given to the Sudanese to legalize their status for a new period of 6 months, starting from the second of October, and until the end of next March, in a decision that is seen as one of the outcomes of the meeting between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the Chairman of the Transitional Sovereign Council in Sudan, Lieutenant-General. The first Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan in Cairo a few days ago.
The freedom to reside without restrictions is one of the aspects of the “Four Freedoms” agreement signed between the two countries in 2004, along with the freedom of mutual movement without a visa, the freedom to work, and the freedom to own land and real estate. the two countries.
The Sudanese in Egypt
While there is no official census of the number of the Sudanese community in Egypt, observers said in statements to Al Jazeera Net that the number doubled in recent months due to the unstable security, political and economic conditions in Sudan.
As for the number of Sudanese refugees in Egypt, it is estimated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which records and documents cases of asylum seekers and refugees on behalf of the Egyptian government, at about 58 thousand, according to a statistic issued last August, as the second largest number of foreign refugees in Egypt after the Syrians.
According to the UN source, Egypt hosts about 289,000 refugees and asylum seekers from 65 countries, about 37% of whom are children, mostly residing in urban areas in Cairo and the northern coast.
According to Egyptian law, every foreigner - including refugees and asylum seekers residing in Egypt - is obliged to obtain a valid residence permit, without which it would be in violation of the country's residency rules.
Looking at the registered Sudanese refugees, they receive basic health and education services, but a percentage of them report that they are sometimes discriminated against, at a time when they are seen as a burden on a country with a high unemployment rate (more than 7% of the estimated population of 103 million). people), high poverty rates (4.5% according to government estimates) and a depreciation of the local currency.
The number of Sudanese in Egypt has recently doubled due to the unstable security, political and economic situation in Sudan (Al-Jazeera)
second extension
Praising the Egyptian decision, the head of the Sudanese community in Cairo, Hussein Othman, says that the reasons for resorting to a second deadline are due to the high number of Sudanese residents in Egypt, in addition to the presence of a problem related to the Sudanese embassy in renewing passports, which prompted the Egyptian authorities to demand an extension of the legalization period.
Othman added, in statements to Al Jazeera Net, that the Sudanese community always aspires to provide Egyptian care, which Cairo responds to.
The Egyptian journalist specializing in Sudanese affairs, Sabah Moussa, agrees with the previous opinion, noting that nearly 10 planes and up to 60 buses were monitored daily transporting Sudanese to Egypt.
In statements to Al Jazeera Net, Moussa said that the large increase in the Sudanese community in recent months has made it impossible to know its exact number, which has increased the problems of expired passports, and the identification of those who have failed to pay renewal fees and fines, whether by Egypt or Sudan.
Regarding the most important problems facing the Sudanese in Egypt, the journalist refers to unemployment, the absence of a source of income for the resident, and the incidents that occur between them, such as theft and quarrels, and the Egyptian security’s ignoring sometimes to solve their problems, which lost many of them the opportunity to benefit from the first legalization period.
She also pointed out that the technical problems that have been going on for nearly a year related to the electronic renewal of Sudanese passports, which prompted Egypt to extend the legalization period after the authorities of the two countries continued.
In turn, lawyer and researcher in refugee affairs, Ashraf Milad, believes that it is natural for Egypt to extend the period of legalization of the situation, adding that the Sudanese, Palestinians, Syrians and Yemenis have exceptions and special treatment, and this is due to the good relationship with those peoples.
stable and not stationary
A significant proportion of the Sudanese expatriates to Egypt, due to its geographical location and ease of movement and movement, consider it a place of refuge to the north, and Cairo is a destination for those looking for treatment or job opportunities, compared to double numbers who fled to Egypt following the civil wars and the unstable security and political conditions there.
However, the relative closure of refugees in recent years due to the Corona pandemic, or the current international crises such as the Ukrainian war and economic recession, and the security grip on Egypt’s coasts and borders, have closed the doors of regular and irregular migration for Africans in general.
Starting from the previous proposition, the head of the Sudanese community returned to point out that Egypt has recently become a home and stable for residents of his country, who are now looking at the least for relative stability with the complexity of immigration opportunities.
In turn, the Egyptian journalist returned to say that the Sudanese had previous justifications with the Refugee Affairs Organization, given the considerations of the security chaos in the regions of Darfur, Kordofan and others, or the violations they were suffering from by the regime of Omar al-Bashir.
But the situation has become more complicated than before - according to Moussa - who believes that Egypt has already transformed from an immigration station for a large proportion of Sudanese to a stable country, explaining that refusal of asylum has become the basis for dealing, and in the best circumstances the refugee takes a long time to reach his goal.
She explained this by referring to the complexities set by the United Nations, including the fall of the justifications for violations with the fall of the regime in Sudan, in addition to the change in the international situation in recent years, negatively for the refugees in general.
On the other hand, researcher Milad asserts that Egypt is a stable country for the older Sudanese generations, which were imbued with Egyptian culture.
But the new generations still see Egypt as a transit country to Europe and America, hoping through the United Nations that they will be resettled as refugees.
The Four Freedoms
Since the announcement of the agreement signed between the two countries in 2004, after the outbreak of the civil war in Darfur, Sudanese and Egyptians are still exchanging accusations about who is responsible for not implementing it.
Commenting on this, journalist Moussa clarifies that Egypt does not refuse to ratify the agreement, and that it is officially treated reciprocally in its application, explaining that freedom of movement and movement is available to Sudanese, and the two countries allow women and those under 16 and over 55 years of age to visit without a visa.
She added that the issue of the transit visa application is due to security reasons, in coordination between the governments of the two countries, and to control the movement of arrivals in conjunction with the state of liquidity and security chaos in the past decade.
Regarding freedom of ownership, she says that Sudanese benefit from it more than Egyptians because Sudanese law does not own the foreigner and adopts a policy of usufruct with him for a period of 99 years, while Egypt allows Sudanese to own real estate and land, in addition to legalizing residency within the framework of a policy of reciprocity, for a period of 6 months.
Milad agrees with the previous opinion, stressing that Egypt does not evade the implementation of the agreement, and that the authorities in Sudan are the ones who require this in order to reduce and control the number of refugees and their movement.
He pointed out that there was a prior agreement between the two countries that Egypt would impose visas on the Sudanese, especially with a large percentage of asylum seekers seeking asylum, which coincided with the exacerbation of the Darfur crisis.
On the other hand, the head of the Sudanese community stresses that there were no obstacles in the implementation of the agreement, as it is being legalized in terms of residence, and as for movement and ownership, there are no obstacles for the Sudanese resident as long as he has sufficient financial ability.
The only dilemma faced by the Sudanese residing in Egypt, with regard to the issue of the four freedoms, is the difficulty of obtaining a work permit for a large proportion of Sudanese, according to Othman.