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Sudanese refugee protest at UNHCR-Cairo ends tragically Information, commentary and analysis
More then two dozen killed in Egyptian police raid on protest camp; protestors released as UNHCR returns to individual RSD At least eleven children and 16 adults were among the dead when a late December 2005 police raid violently ended the months-long Sudanese protest outside UNHCR’s office in Cairo. The police arrested, and then threatened to deport, around 650 Sudanese, most them refugees. The UNHCR negotiated with Egyptian authorities for weeks to prevent their deportation. The last of the protestors were released in February 2006. Faced with government threats to the refugees, UNHCR began individual refugee status determination of the detainees, working under short deadlines imposed by the government. This broke with UNHCR’s two-year-old policy of granting temporary protection to all Sudanese in Egypt, and required UNHCR to decide cases in weeks that would normally take months. For more information, note the following sources: Þ RSDWatch special forum, The Lessons of Cairo, 16 June 2006 (scroll down on this page) Þ American University in Cairo’s Forced Migration and Refugee Studies (FMRS) Program report on the protest and its aftermath; UNHCR’s critical response to FMRS was reported by IRINNEWS. Þ Chronology of events, provided by IRINNEWS. Þ Egyptian government official statement on the police action against protestors. Þ UNHCR statements of 30 December 2005 and 19 January 2006 and UNHCR news story on the release of detained protestors. Þ Human rights organizations called for an investigation into the killings of the protestors. Links to statements by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. Þ Al-Ahram Weekly 17 November 2005 report on breakdown of negotiations
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Special update 16 June 2006: Forum: The Lessons of Cairo
This month, the American University in Cairo’s Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program (FMRS) published a comprehensive report on the intense protests of Sudanese refugees in Egypt that ended in December with the death of at least 28 people. The protests involved several thousand Sudanese frustrated by the suspension of refugee status determination and resettlement at UNHCR’s Cairo office. In this special forum update, RSDWatch publishes excerpts of the FMRS report and two commentaries that seek to find lessons for future refugee policy from the tragic events in Egypt.
Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program (American University in Cairo) A tragedy of failures and false expectations (excerpts) “A series of failures on the part of the Egyptian government and UNHCR, combined with unrealistic expectations and grave miscalculations on the part of the demonstrators and their leaders, resulted in the tragedies of the forced eviction.”
Katarzyna Grabska A system of diffuse responsibility, with blame shared by all “The muddling through approach which has been adopted by the government and the UNHCR, with shifting responsibilities between different actors, leaves refugees and those seeking protection in a vulnerable position, often in a legal limbo.”
Michael Timmins “There is a complete misunderstanding within the entire refugee community in Cairo as to what resettlement actually is, and how the process works. The expectations are too high and this leads to considerable frustration.”
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Original RSDWatch analysis posted 13 November 2005
Defying expectations, Sudanese protestors in Cairo oppose UNHCR’s group-based RSD policies
For more than a month in a large Cairo square, hundreds of Sudanese refugees staged a protest against the UN refugee agency’s decision to recognize them as refugees on a group basis. The protestors also oppose being settled in Egypt or returning to Sudan.
The protestors, by some estimates numbering around 1200, have gathered in a plaza adjacent to both the UNHCR office and the Mustafa Mahmoud mosque complex. Their demonstration began days before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and defied expectations by continuing through the Eid al-Fitr holiday (3-6 November).
Egyptian police, who had allowed the protest throughout Ramadan, were widely expected to attempt to remove the demonstrators before the plaza became the site of Eid al-Fitr festivities. Instead, the police erected screens to separate the protest from the festival and allowed the demonstration to go on. According to some media reports, the protestors have included children, and at least one Sudanese woman may have fallen ill and died during the demonstration.
According to UNHCR, Egypt currently hosts around 30,000 Sudanese refugees. The protestors’ main complaints center on their poor living conditions, and stem from UNHCR’s decision in June 2004 to grant all Sudanese asylum-seekers temporary protection rather than subject them to individual refugee status determination (RSD), as had been the practice for the previous nine years.
But the protestors’ demands also illustrate that the assumptions of refugee policy do not always reflect the actual desires of refugees.
Background: Refugee policy shifts in Egypt
Until June 2004, Sudanese refugees in Egypt applied individually to one of UNHCR’s largest RSD operations in the world. In most years, the majority of applicants were rejected, although this changed in 2003 when UNHCR-Cairo began applying the wider African refugee definition in addition to the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Like most UNHCR offices that conduct RSD, UNHCR did not give rejected applicants specific reasons for rejection, denied them access to the evidence in their files, and did not establish a fully independent appeal system. On the other hand, UNHCR-Cairo was ahead of many other offices in allowing asylum-seekers to obtain legal aid in their applications.
But beyond the struggles Sudanese faced obtaining recognition of their refugee status, one of the biggest refugee policy dilemmas in Egypt has long been how to promote a “durable solution” for refugees. In theory, the top two durable solutions for refugees promoted by UNHCR are voluntary repatriation and local integration. Yet neither were prominent in Egypt until recently.
UNHCR provided recognized refugees with limited financial aid, along with medical services and education. Yet UNHCR services were strained by steadily declining resources and a growing refugee population.
In practice, UNHCR referred the majority of recognized Sudanese refugees in Egypt for resettlement to western countries. While established international refugee policy limits eligibility for resettlement, recognition of refugee status by UNHCR-Cairo was often perceived to be a promise of resettlement rather than as a guarantee of rights in Egypt.
Resettlement pleased refugees who were able to relocate mainly to the U.S., Canada and Australia. It also complied with an arrangement with the Egyptian Government dating to the 1950s in which Egypt agreed to let refugees stay temporarily while UNHCR agreed to promote their resettlement or repatriation.
Yet the heavy reliance on resettlement also produced criticism that refugee welfare in Egypt was being neglected while UNHCR operated as little more than a “travel agency.” Only a minority of the asylum-seekers who applied actually managed to make it to the west, since the majority normally failed in the RSD process. Sudanese who were refused refugee recognition at UNHCR ended up in what one writer dubbed “closed file limbo.”
This basic policy continues in Egypt for most nationalities, but not for Sudanese, who constitute the vast majority of non-Palestinian refugees in the country.
In June 2004 UNHCR halted individual status determination for Sudanese, instead granting them temporary protection on a group basis. The change coincided with the peace process in southern Sudan. UNHCR has since begun to promote voluntary repatriation instead of resettlement for southern Sudanese.
The protestors’ demands
The protestors and the Sudanese Human Rights Organization in Cairo have demanded that UNHCR address their poor housing and economic situation in Egypt, and have complained about abusive treatment by UNHCR staff, including neglect of vulnerable children, women and elderly.
The protest has mainly taken the form of a continuing quiet sit-in, with growing numbers of refugees arriving throughout October. According to media reports, signs read, “We reject local integration” and “We are the victims of mismanagement.” The demonstrators have complained that they face rampant racism and violence in Egypt, and have displayed banners with photographs of Sudanese they say have disappeared or been killed in Egypt.
The calm promoted by the organizers along with the restraint of the Egyptian police have been a marked contrast to an August 2004 demonstration at UNHCR that turned violent, leading to the arrest of 20 Sudanese refugees.
A list of 13 “requests” compiled by the demonstrators repeated these themes, rejecting “compulsory voluntary repatriation,” objecting to long term life in Egypt, and calling UNHCR’s policies toward Sudanese “unfair.” They asked UNHCR to search for missing Sudanese in Egypt.
But their main demand has been to reverse the June 2004 policy. They have called for an end to UNHCR’s repatriation program to Sudan, re-opening of closed files, and a resumption of RSD and resettlement.
Demonstrators’ resistance to local integration in Egypt might be indirectly encouraged by UNHCR policy. Because UNHCR in theory promotes resettlement only when no other durable solution is available, refugees who want to resettle have reason to resist policy changes that improve their local conditions.
This might explain why the refugee demonstrators are opposing implementation of the 2004 “Four Freedoms” agreement between Egypt and Sudan. If implemented, the agreement would grant Egyptian and Sudanese citizens reciprocal residency rights in each country.
From a legal point of view the Four Freedoms agreement could be a potential breakthrough for Sudanese in Egypt. But for exactly the same reason it might force Sudanese refugees to remain in Egypt for the long term.
A challenge to the assumptions of international refugee policy
The demonstrators’ complaints about racism, poor living conditions, arbitrary arrests and improper RSD procedures in Egypt have been echoed separately by human rights groups, academic studies, media reports and even UNHCR’s own reports on Egypt. But the general thrust of the protestors’ demands shows that refugee rights, international policy and refugees’ own preferences are not always in synch.
A first gap concerns the basic question of who is ultimately responsible for refugee welfare. Protestors are demanding an end to arbitrary detention and protesting Egyptian racism. Primary legal responsibility for such issues rests with the Egyptian government, not with UNHCR. But the protestors have addressed all of their concerns to UNHCR.
“Most of the demands of the Sudanese demonstrators are beyond the UNHCR’s control,” UNHCR said in a statement quoted by international media.
Egypt is one of several dozen countries that have ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention but have nevertheless left RSD in the hands of UNHCR. This transfer of responsibility can obscure normal legal principles about who is accountable for refugee policy.
Another gap concerns status determination policy. One of the key requests by the protestors is for “the UNHCR to consider Sudanese refugee status determination as individuals not as a group.” This puts the demonstrations at odds not just with UNHCR but also with refugee advocates who have sought to expand group-based refugee status determination in Egypt in order to avoid many of the pitfalls inherent in individual RSD.
“The decision to stop individual status determination interviews for the Sudanese was done to protect a larger number of Sudanese,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Leila Nassif in an interview published in the online African newsletter Pambakuka News.
In 2002, refugee rights lawyer Michael Kagan (now RSDWatch manager) published a study critiquing UNHCR’s RSD procedures in Cairo. After concluding that UNHCR’s procedures were unfair and that UNHCR’s resources were declining, Kagan argued that UNHCR should recognize more refugees on a group basis in order to avoid rejecting people in danger and to focus resources more efficiently. Similar calls have been made by Dr. Barbara Harrell-Bond, a professor at the American University in Cairo and the most prominent refugee rights advocate in Egypt.
Policy says repatriate, refugees say resettle
Promoting repatriation has always been part of UNHCR’s mandate, but during the Cold War resettlement programs tended to receive more emphasis. In the last two decades this has been changed. Scholars of forced migration policy say that such shifts reflect changing political priorities on the part of governments more than refugee interests.
One of the trademarks of UNHCR’s durable solutions policy is that refugees are not allowed to choose for themselves what solution fits them best. Instead, officials usually tell refugees what solution will be promoted for them. Refugees who want to resettle can therefore be asked to locally integrate or consider returning home instead. In part this reflects the state of international law. Refugees have a right to return and the right to be protected in a host country. But there is no right to resettle to a third country.
UNHCR often portrays its emphasis on repatriation as a reflection of refugee desires. A prominent poster displayed in many UNHCR offices shows smiling refugees on a truck above the slogan, “Many happy returns.” When a peace process shows some promise, as in southern Sudan, UNHCR plans for repatriation are usually not far behind.
Yet the refugees protesting in Cairo argue that repatriation is effectively being imposed on them. They say that denying them resettlement effectively leaves them little other choice, since they say racism and harsh living conditions make it impossible to stay in Egypt.
In her online interview, Nassif insisted that UNHCR opposed forced returns to Sudan. “Voluntary means voluntary and we do not force any person to return against his or her will,” she said.
Nassif argued that refugees in Egypt do face difficult conditions, but not necessarily more difficult than poor Egyptians, and were better off than refugees in other countries. Yet for years UNHCR had promoted resettlement on the premise that refugees could not locally integrate in Egypt.
Photographs of the protest have been posted on the internet.
For more information about these protests, see complete coverage in Pambazuka News Þ Sudanese refugees in Cairo: We’ll wait here, we’ll die here (20 October 2005) Þ UNHCR responds to the Cairo refugee sit-in: An official response (27 October 2005)
Also read: US Committee for Refugees, World Refugee Survey 2005 — Egypt
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