Rights of refugees

Rights of refugees

In Egypt, refugees are exposed to humanitarian violations and faced extremely bad conditions. In 2012, the former president had given Syrian refugees equal treatment as Egyptians in regards to education and healthcare. Also, the protection of refugees is guaranteed under the new constitution as article 91 states that “The State may grant political asylum to any foreigner persecuted for defending the interests of people, human rights, peace or justice…. Also, The Foreign Ministry spokesman denies abuses against refugees from Syria. He estimates that the numbers of Syrian refugees in Egypt is 300,000 Syrians and are being treated the same way as Egyptians in regards with access to Health and Education Services. The spokesman stressed that “There is no official policy on the forced deportation of our Syrian brothers.

However, the Egyptian authorities have detained hundreds of Syrian refugees with their children and forced them to leave the country, and this violates the international conventions.

Due to the above, the coalition calls for the following:

• The state shall raise awareness of the security officials on the rights of refugees and facilitate procedures for legalizing their stay. It shall also increase refugee awareness of the importance of the formation of Refugee community organizations to take care of their rights asresidents.
• The state shallimmediately release all detained refugees who have not even been brought to trial during or after the revolution.
• The state shall provide the refugees with a travel document especially those refugeeswho have blue identity cards and reside in Egypt for more than three years as provided in Article 28 of the 1951 refugee Convention ratified by Egypt.
• The Institutions, Ministries and organizations working with refugees should establishenhanced cooperation between themselves for improving both care and social services provided to refugees.