Egypt: Refugees in hiding amid crackdown involving arbitrary arrests and unlawful deportations

(Amnesty International) In recent months, the Egyptian authorities renewed their campaign of arbitrarily detaining and unlawfully deporting refugees and asylum seekers solely on the basis of their irregular immigration status in blatant violation of the principle of non-refoulement and Egypt’s own asylum law, Amnesty International said today. Refugees or asylum seekers registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are among those unlawfully deported or arbitrarily detained pending deportation. Since late December 2025, police officers in plain clothes have been arbitrarily rounding up nationals of Syria, Sudan, South Sudan and other Sub-Saharan countries from the streets or their workplaces in cities across the country following identity checks. Those found without valid residency permits were driven away in unmarked vans, even when they were able to produce UNHCR cards. – Egypt: Refugees in hiding amid crackdown involving arrests