In the last few years, Egypt has hosted an increasing number of refugees. Unfortunately, few organizations provide legal aid for refugees. EFRR was found and established in 2008, as (non-profit) NGO to provide pro bono legal aid for refugees before Egyptian courts, police office officials and at detention centers.  EFRR is concerned to ensuring refugees have access to and enjoyment of their rights and to raising the awareness of the rights of refugees under domestic Egyptian and international law.

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EFRR organized training for refugee groups

The Egyptian Foundation for Refugee Rights (EFRR) hosted a three-day training workshop "Lessons Learned from Civil Society Practices" on September 27-29. A number of twenty-seven participants representing Refugee Community Based Organizations, Refugee Initiatives and Leaders from Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Iraq and the Palestinian Territories participated in the workshop. The training included lectures and round-table discussions on International Refugee Law as well as best practices in Advocacy, Capacity Building and Legal Aid strategies. The sessions were moderated by three experts: Ms. Muna Al-Salahat (Justice Centre for Legal Aid, Jordan) Ms. Alice Nah (Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, Malaysia) and Mr. Martin Jones (Centre for Applied Human Rights, UK). At the end of the training, Participants rated the workshop as "very useful", familiarizing them with challenges and successful experiences in serving refugees in different sites and new ideas for addressing the problems of refugees in Egypt.  
The training was organized as part of EFRR's program "Refugee Empowerment and Advocacy Project (REAP)". It will be followed by monthly meetings with refugee participants to brainstorm for advocacy factsheets on issues of priority for the refugee communities, to be published in late 2011. The project continues until March 2012 and will include dialogues with local and international stake-holders concerned with refugee affairs in Egypt.

 

 

EFRR CALLS FOR THE CATEGORICAL RELEASE OF REFUGEE POLITICAL DETAINEES IN EGYPT BEING DETAINED WITHOUT EVIDENCE AGAINST THEM

Following the January 25th Revolution in Egypt, the Ministry of Interior arranged for the categorical release of political prisoners of Egyptian nationality. However, a significant number of refugee detainees, including EFRR clients Mr. Haroun and Mr. Khalil, have been kept in detention centers as political detainees under the Emergency Law, even though deportation proceedings against them have been halted due to lack of evidence. The decision of the Ministry of Interior to release political detainees after the Revolution did not apply to refugee victims of unfair detention.

On the 10th of January, 2010, officers of the Egyptian State Security arrested Mr. Faisal Mohamed Haroun and Mr. Adam Yahya Abdellah Khalil, natives of Sudan who were registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and detained them. The government set their deportation date for January of the following year. Casework on behalf of Mr. Haroun and Mr. Khalil indicated that the State Security Department accused them of smuggling weapons and persons between Egypt, Israel, and the Gaza Strip. It appears that the Egyptian government initially intended to deport the men to their country of origin, where they faced the probability of an unfair trial and possibly the death penalty. However, the government failed to provide any evidence against the men. The Egyptian Foundation for Refugee Rights, with the help of international human rights community, succeeded in obtaining an annulment of the decision by the Ministry of Interior to deport the men after the case was sent to an administrative court. Following the ruling, a copy was presented to the Public Prosecutor. The men have yet to be released from detention.

Following the court decision to stop deportation proceedings against Mr. Haroun and Mr. Khalil, EFRR lawyers asked for a meeting with the assistant to the Minister of the Interior in order to discuss the situation of the two men, and to advocate for their release.

Prior to the Revolution, the Director of Quanater Prison refused to allow EFRR lawyers to meet with Mr. Haroun and Mr. Khalil. However, on August 25th, 2011, permission was granted to an EFRR lawyer to meet with the men. They informed the lawyer that ten other Sudanese men, two Somalia men, and two Ethiopian men were being similarly detained as political prisoners, without evidence having been provided against them. We can only speculate as to the number of asylum seekers who are being detained in this fashion across Egypt.

We urge our partners in the international human rights community to encourage Egyptian authorities to extend their recent decision to release political prisoners to foreigners, especially those registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as asylum seekers and refugees.

Send your appeals to:

·        Minister of the Interior, General Mansour El Essiwy , Ministry of the Interior, El-Sheikh Rihan Street, Bab al-Louk, Cairo, Egypt, E-mail: moi1@idsc.gov.eg, Fax: +202 579 2031 / 794 5529

·        Public Prosecutor, Counselor Abd El Meged Mahmud, Dar al-Qadha al-Ali, Ramses Street, Cairo, Egypt, Fax: +202 577 4716 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202 577 4716      

judicial rulings To stop deportation of Sudanese refugees
And protection from forced return

EFRR has succeeded to obtain two judgments of the Court of Administrative Judicial in Cairo, first circle, to stop the Minister of interior's decisions to deport the two Sudanese Refugees; Mr. Faisal Mohamed Haroun and Mr. Adam Yahiya Abdullah Khalil, and to implement this court decision with the draft and without declaration.  This comes within the framework of the follow-up of EFRR to the series of forced deportations by the Egyptian government to many of the refugees and the latest of which was Mr. Faisal Mohammed Haroun, who has already started to clamp deported and is currently in Aswan in his way to Sudan. Throughout many legal attempts adopted by the Organization through the office of the High General Prosecutor, national councils and the Ministry of Interior, the EFRR  has finally became able to get a court ruling from the  Administrative Judicial court to halt the deportation of Mr. Faisal Mohammed Harun and Mr. Adam Yahya Abdullah Khalil.

Background Information
On 10 January 2010, officers of the Egyptian State Security Investigations (“Mabahith Amn Al-Dawla”) arrested Mr. Faisal Mohamed Haroun and detained him.  The government of Egypt has indicated its plan to deport him on 16 January 2011 at 11:00pm from Cairo Airport.

In September 2010, the State Security ordered the deportations of Mr. Haroun.  Official documents subsequently have been obtained indicating that the State Security is accusing Mr. Haroun of being involved in weapons and people smuggling between Egypt, Israel and the Gaza Strip; documents also indicated that, at that time, the Egyptian government agreed only to remove him to a third country (not Sudan) arranged by UNHCR.  The Egyptian government has presented no evidence to support the allegations against Mr. Haroun.  EFRR has challenged the decision to deport him (in Administrative Judicial Court case no. 47889).  Arguments and submissions have been made and a decision in the case is expected on 18 January 2011.

 

The Court based its judgments to the international conventions signed by Egypt regarding the protection of the rights of refugees, signed in Geneva on 28.07.1951 and was based on Article 53 and Article 151 of the Egyptian Constitution, also relied on the ruling on Articles 31, 32.33 of the United Status of Refugees of 1951 and Article 13 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
 Given the judgments appeared in the papers submitted by the Department, the defendants were refugees in Egypt and that their  accusation in case No. 79 of 2010, state security does not justify the deportation out of Egypt because the basic principle in accordance with the provisions of Article 67 of the Constitution indicates that "the accused is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law that guarantees the right to defend himself" and he has not shown that a final decision has been issued against them.
Once receiving the Egyptian judicial ruling to halt deportation, the Organization has quickly worked to address the Ministry of the Interior to stop the deportation action against the refugee who is currently in Aswan and to implement the court's ruling.

Meanwhile, EFRR also calls upon the concerned bodies to implement the issued judicial rulings and to protect refugees against forcible return.
"STAND IN SOLIDARITY TO PROTECT REFUGEES IN EGYPT"

For more information : 0227922689 – 0198895588 - 0198895589

EFRR expresses deep concern over the impending deportation of a Sudanese Refugee from Egypt in frustration of proceedings in the Administrative Court

January 13, 2011

We are writing you regarding the arbitrary arrest, mistreatment, ongoing detention and forcible deportation of a male Sudanese refugee by the Egyptian government. 

More specifically, we request your intervention on behalf of this refugee. It is our belief that his mistreatment, continued detention and forcible deportation constitutes a violation of his rights as a human being and as a refugee, including a breach of the obligations owed to them by the Egyptian government to him by virtue of it being a signatory to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 and other international treatie

Background Information

On 10 January 2010 agents of the State Security (“Mabahith Amn Al-Dawla”) in Egypt arrested Mr. Faisal Mohamed Haroun and detained him.  The government of Egypt has indicated its plan is to deport him on 16 January 2011 at 11:00pm from Cairo Airport

In September 2010, the State Security ordered Mr. Haroun deported.  Official documents subsequently obtained indicate that the State Security believed that Mr. Haroun was involved in weapons and people smuggling between Egypt, Israel and the Gaza Strip; documents also indicated that, at that time, the Egyptian government agreed to only remove him to a third country (not Sudan) arranged by UNHCR.  The Egyptian government has presented no evidence to support the allegations against Mr. Haroun.  EFRR has challenged the decision to deport him (in Administrative Court case no. 47889).  Arguments and submissions have been made and a decision in the case is expected on 18 January 2011.

In a clear effort to frustrate the review by the Administrative Court and departing from its previous position (not to deport Mr. Haroun to Sudan), Mr. Haroun was recently arrested and transferred to El Khalifa prison.  EFRR has been informed that the Egyptian Authority is planning to deport him on Sunday 16 January 2011 at 11:00 p.m from Cairo Airport

EFRR has submitted a complaint about the planned deportation of Mr. Haroun to the Office of the High General Prosecutor (complaint no. 566/2011, asking for a halt to the deportation procedures for Mr. Haroun) and a complaint to the National Council for Human Rights (complaint no. 20112621).

The EFRR recalls that it is a breach of Egypt’s international obligations under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 which Egypt has signed and ratified to (i) arbitrarily arrest and detain refugees, and (ii) to threaten refugees with forced removal to a place in which they would face persecution.  With respect to the latter, no evidence of reasonable grounds for the smuggling of weapons or people has been submitted by the Egyptian authorities nor has Mr. Haroun been convicted by final judgment of any crime. The deportation to Sudan of Mr. Haroun also violates Egypt’s obligations under Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture.  In addition, the detention of these refugees, is in clear contravention of the guidance of the Executive Committee of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, of which H.E. Ambassador Hisham Badr of Egypt serves as chairperson.

EFRR is aware that progress is being made to resettle Mr. Haroun to a third country and at least for this reason the Egyptian Government should allow for the resettlement of Mr. Haroun instead of deporting him to his country of origin where he is at risk of persecution.

Recommended Action

Please write to the Egyptian authorities to urge them to:

• Respect the proceedings currently before the Administrative Court;
• Stop the deportation procedures for Mr. Faisal Mohamed Haroun;
• Release Mr. Faisal Mohamed Haroun from detention; and,
• Cease harassing, through arrest and detention, the refugee in questio

Send your appeals to:

• Minister of the Interior, General Habib Ibrahim Habib El Adly, Ministry of the Interior, El-Sheikh Rihan Street, Bab al-Louk, Cairo, Egypt, E-mail: moi1@idsc.gov.eg, Fax: +202 579 2031 / 794 5529
• Minister of Justice, Mr. Mamdoh Mohie E-din Marie, Ministry of Justice, Magles El Saeb Street, Wezaret Al Adl, Cairo, Egypt, E-mail: mojeb@idsc.gov.eg, Fax: +202 795 8103
• Public Prosecutor, Counsellor Maher Abd al-Wahid, Dar al-Qadha al-Ali, Ramses Street, Cairo, Egypt, Fax: +202 577 4716
• H.E. Ambassador Hisham Badr, Permanent Mission to the UN of Egypt in Geneva 49, Av. BLANC 2eme Etage, 1202 GENEVE, Switzerland, Fax: local: (022) 738.4415; international: +41.22.738.4415
• National Council For Human Rights, Email: nchr@nchr.org.eg,  insan@nchr.org.e