Adam, a 45-year-old survivor of violence from the persecuted Fur tribe in the Sudan’s eastern Darfur province, demonstrates how he was forced to keep his hands on his neck at all times in the detention centre, even when not handcuffed.Robert Bociaga/The Globe and Mail
When war erupted in Sudan last year, Mustafa watched as his neighbours in Darfur were relentlessly attacked by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Their homes were looted and torched. Some of them were even sexually assaulted.
Fearing the same fate, he and his family fled across the border to Egypt, where he soon faced another cruel ordeal. Arrested and detained for 22 days in a Cairo prison, he was beaten and threatened with death, he said, and contracted a skin disease in an overcrowded cell.
Now he is considering taking his family back to Sudan, even though the catastrophic war continues unabated there. “We’re afraid of future police raids,” he told The Globe and Mail. “I won’t survive detention again.”
After 14 months of brutal war, Sudan has become the world’s biggest displacement crisis, with more than nine million people forced to flee their homes. More than 500,000 crossed the border into Egypt, where many are now suffering discrimination and persecution in a country strained by an economic crisis and heavy foreign debt.
Mustafa looks out from his balcony.Robert Bociaga/The Globe and Mail
In recent months, Egyptian security agencies have intensified their arbitrary detentions of Sudanese refugees, including many who should be protected under international law because they are registered with UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. Thousands have been deported or forced back to Sudan in breach of international law, human-rights groups say. (The Globe is withholding the full names of some refugees in this story because they are in danger of arrest.)
“Since the start of the conflict in Sudan, Egypt has seen the number of immigration-related detentions skyrocket,” said a recent report by two Switzerland-based groups, the Global Detention Project and the Committee for Justice.
“The majority have targeted Sudanese refugees entering Egypt to escape the ongoing conflict who, due to the challenges in obtaining an entry visa to Egypt, enter the country irregularly,” the report said.
Recorded arrests of refugees and asylum seekers soared 42 per cent last year and continued to increase this year, it said. As many as 990 foreign migrants – mostly Sudanese refugees – have been arrested monthly this year, up from an average of 300 per month before the war in Sudan. Many arrests are never recorded, so the detentions are probably occurring “on a large scale,” the report added.
Other detainees had lived in Egypt for years before they were caught in the crackdown. Adam, a 45-year-old survivor of violence from the persecuted Fur tribe in Sudan’s eastern Darfur region, fled to Egypt in 2021. Early this year, he said, police officers stopped him on the street in his neighbourhood of Giza, near Cairo, and tore up his residency and refugee cards. He said he was taken to a detention centre and held for 20 days without access to lawyers.
“During my detention, they beat me repeatedly,” he told The Globe. “They insulted me, threatened to rape me, and I was placed in a tiny, overcrowded room with over 50 other detainees, many of whom were dangerous criminals.”
Adam illustrates the width of his prison cell by comparing it to the dimensions of this room, highlighting the cramped and harsh conditions he endured.Robert Bociaga/The Globe and Mail
Like Mustafa, he contracted a skin disease while in detention, where he said he was deprived of proper food, clean water, medical care and contact with the outside world.
“I ran away to save my life from Sudan due to the racism, jailing and torture I experienced in both Khartoum and Darfur,” he said. “But now I find Egypt has turned into a similar hell.”
The Globe contacted the Egyptian government’s State Information Service to request a comment on the accounts by the Sudanese refugees, but there was no response.
Sudanese communities in Cairo have formed grassroots organizations, with help from their diaspora, to address the problems of the refugees.
“The incidents of bullying and racism have recently increased significantly,” said Ahmed Abdelaziz, a 28-year-old Sudanese community leader, in an interview. He called for action from UN agencies and others to protect the rights of the refugees.
Because of the extreme difficulty of obtaining entry visas to Egypt, many refugees have resorted to crossing the border by unofficial means, exposing them to extortion by smugglers and arrest by the authorities.
Human-rights groups have reported that Sudanese detainees – including children, sick and elderly people and women, some of whom are pregnant – are often held in camps near the Sudan border that are not legally registered as detention centres.
“Detainees live in inhumane conditions in detention centres, denied visits and access to health care,” a coalition of 25 refugee and rights groups said in a recent report.
“In Cairo, Giza and Alexandria, the testimonies of victims of these abuses show a clear pattern of authorities targeting Black people for arbitrary arrests in raids on residential areas of African nationalities, and arbitrary arrests in the streets, bus stops and metro stations,” the groups said. “While detained, they are denied access to their families, advocates and the UNHCR.”
Even if they manage to avoid arrest, many Sudanese refugees face precarious living conditions in Egypt, often resorting to hazardous work and experiencing discrimination in housing, putting them at risk of homelessness.
Firyal Mohammed Hassan, a 30-year-old mother, was abruptly evicted from her apartment by an Egyptian landlord after paying the full rent.
Firyal Hassan holds her baby, suffering a hunger-related illness, in Cairo. The consequences of being trapped in the city have had a lifelong impact on their lives.Robert Bociaga/The Globe and Mail
Her husband was killed in Sudan’s capital, and her youngest child has struggled with a hunger-related illness. “As a registered refugee since December, 2023, I’ve pleaded for assistance for my kids,” she told The Globe.
The UNHCR office in Egypt has been criticized for its slow processing of documents that refugees need for their residence permits. The process can take as long as a year, with the permits then valid for only a few months. But the UN agency is hampered by a lack of resources; it has received only a small fraction of its funding target this year.
Christine Beshay, a spokesperson for UNHCR, acknowledged the long wait time. “Due to the increase of numbers of refugees approaching the office, the registration process can take months, which delays the provision of different services,” she said.
Detainees in Egypt are not allowed to file asylum applications from inside detention facilities, and the UNHCR is unable to register them or communicate with them. This bureaucratic bottleneck worsens their vulnerability.
“We were standing in line to enter the UNHCR office when the security forces, wearing official uniforms, started pushing us violently,” said Sarah, a young refugee mother, describing an incident in April.
“They hurled racist and insulting words at us, including the children,” she said. “It was a terrifying experience that left us feeling helpless.”
With a report from Geoffrey York in Johannesburg