Sudanese refugees in Egypt

There are tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Egypt, most of them seeking refuge from ongoing military conflicts in their home country of Sudan. Their official status as refugees is highly disputed, and they have been subject to racial discrimination and police violence.

They live among a much larger population of Sudanese migrants in Egypt, more than two million people of Sudanese nationality (by most estimates; a full range is 750,000 to 4 million (FMRS 2006:5) who live in Egypt. The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants believes many more of these migrants are in fact refugees, but see little benefit in seeking recognition.

Egypt employs a "shoot to stop" policy against refugees attempting to continue to Israel. According to Human Rights Watch, over 50 refugees, including women and children, have been shot by Egyptian border guards since 2007.

The violent destabilization and economic collapse caused by the immense amount of death and destruction in Sudan has forced millions of civilians to flee their homes and cities. Many refugees currently residing in Egypt escaped from the Second Sudanese Civil War, where war "pitted black African separatists" and "Christians" against a "Sudanese government run by Muslim, Arabic-speaking northerners who had tried to impose Islamic law on the country." 1 in 5 Sudanese were killed in the war, and over 4 million civilians in the South have been given Internally Displaced Persons status. The majority of these IDPs are attempting to resettle outside of the country, but efforts have produced minimal results.

Almost one quarter of the refugees report that their experience with the UNHCR was their worst stressor since armed conflicts in Sudan.

Although Egypt is a founding signatory to both the 1951 Refugee Convention and the OAU Refugee Convention, the Egyptian government’s lack of implementation and numerous conditions entered into the 1951 Convention substantially limit the rights of refugees in Egypt.

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