Egypt this week adopted its first bill to grant asylum to migrants, which has sparked a backlash from rights campaigners who fear security concerns will override migrant protection.

The bill, signed into law on Tuesday by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, aims to respond to the massive influx of refugees arriving in the country, mainly from Sudan and the Gaza Strip.

Hundreds of Sudanese are entering Egypt every day, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which has warned of a possible increase in irregular migrants from the war-torn country.

As of the end of November, the UNHCR had recorded a total of 845,000 people who had received refugee or asylum-seeker status in Egypt. However, according to the government, Egypt hosts more than nine million “guests”, as the country’s prime minister described them.

Concerns about the controversial bill

For years the UNHCR managed the registration and granting of asylum status to refugees under an agreement it had entered into in 1954 with the Egyptian government. The young man law transfers these responsibilities to the Egyptians authorities and provides for the establishment of a standing committee under the prime minister.

This body will be responsible for overseeing issues related to asylum applications and the provision of basic services to refugees.

For human rights advocates, the law was adopted in haste, without sufficient consultation with civil society organizations or the UNHCR.

Karim Enarach, director of the research service of the Egyptian Initiative for Human Rights, denounced a bill “passed in haste and in secret.”
Tarek Radwan, chairman of the parliamentary human rights committee, responded that it was “urgent to adopt” the bill. “No country can manage the continuous increase in the number of refugees without rules to frame their presence,” he stressed.

The Egyptian government says the law is in accordance with international treaties and aims to organize data on migrants by integrating government databases with those of UNHCR.

But, according to its critics, the bill adopts “a security-based approach».

One of the main concerns concerns the article which allows Egyptian authorities to take “necessary measures” against refugees in time of warduring counter-terrorism operations or in response to extraordinary circumstances aimed at ensuring public order and national security.

Another controversial article provides for the imposing penalties on those who offer protection to refugees without first informing the police. The law also requires refugees who enter Egypt illegally to submit request for asylum within 45 days after their arrival in the country.

So many measures that “weaken even more the already fragile protections of refugees”, complained Enarach.

In a report published on Tuesday Human Rights Watch (HRW) points out “the risk that the Egyptian authorities will arbitrarily deny or cancel the right to asylum”, “use emergency powers to undermine” the rights of refugees, “force them to comply with rules that have been formulated in vague terms” and criminalize illegal entry into Egypt.

In recent years, Egypt has welcomed mainly Syrians, Palestinians and Sudanese.

According to government data, more than 1.2 million Sudanese refugees have fled to Egypt after the outbreak of war there in 2023. Also more than 150,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Egypt since 2011.

Besides more than 100,000 Palestinians have entered Egypt since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

Although many Egyptians show solidarity, others see the refugees as a strain on health and education services as well as exacerbating the housing problem.
Egyptian officials have repeatedly called for more foreign funding.

In October, the EU offered Egypt 12.2 million euros for the provision of education and health services to refugees and immigrants.