Introduction
The global landscape of forced displacement has shifted from a series of isolated humanitarian crises into a permanent feature of modern geopolitics. At the end of 2024, an estimated 123.2 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced due to persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing the public order (UNHCR, 2025). As the world struggles to cope with global economic imbalances, diverging demographic trends, climate change, and other ongoing issues, migration is becoming a necessity. Decades of instability in Middle Eastern countries have been compounded by a new era of catastrophic fragmentation (UNHCR, 2025).
For example, the war in Sudan emerged as the world’s largest displacement crisis, with 14.3 million people forced from their homes, representing nearly one in three of their national population (UNHCR, 2025). Meanwhile, Syria is also at a historic crossroads, despite the fall of the Assad regime in December 2025 sparking a wave of over 500,000 spontaneous returns, the country still accounts for one of the largest displaced population globally, with 6.1 million refugees and 7.4 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in a state of profound uncertainty (UNHCR, 2025). This regional volatility is further strained by the situation in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, where cross-border violence and internal displacement have reached critical levels. It is clear that for the number of forcibly displaced people to reduce in the upcoming years, meaningful progress is required at the root causes, for example, conflict, disregard for the basic tenets of international humanitarian law (IHL), and other forms of violence and persecution.
In this context, Egypt is also standing at crossroads. For decades, under a Memorandum of Understanding with the government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has registered asylum seekers, determined refugee status, and issued documentation to refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt (Human Rights Watch, 2024). However, Egypt’s first domestic asylum legislation, Law No. 164 of 2024, changed the situation, as it shifted these responsibilities to a new national regulatory body called the Permanent Committee for Refugee Affairs, where the committee would also ensure the provision of support and services to refugees and cooperate with UNHCR (Human Rights Watch, 2024). Some human rights organisations expressed concerns that the law fails to meet the needs of refugees and respects their fundamental rights (AIDA, 2025). The process of issuing the law has resulted in numerous violations of refugees’ fundamental rights, and rather than providing protection, the law exposes them to numerous risks. Moreover, under Articles 35 and 36 of the United Nations (UN) Refugee Convention, states should undertake and cooperate with UNHCR, through efforts such as informing the UNHCR about legislation that may be adopted relating to refugees. Without doing so, Egypt failed to meet this treaty commitment (Human Rights Watch, 2024).
This article aims to first delve deeper into international legislation regarding migration, refugees, and asylum-seekers, discuss Egypt’s legal framework, and finally examine how the international and regional legal frameworks affect the human rights situation in Egypt.
Legal Framework
The Refugee Convention dates back to the First World War (WWI), when millions of people fled their homelands in search of refuge. Governments started drawing up a set of international agreements to provide travel documents for the people who were the first recognised refugees of the twentieth century (UNHCR). The number of refugees increased dramatically during and after the Second World War (WWII), as millions more were forced to flee their homes. The process of drafting guidelines, laws, and conventions began under the League of Nations in 1921 and culminated in the 1951 Convention.
The obligation to provide sanctuary to displaced people is governed by the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, which serves as the cornerstone of international protection. The 1951 Convention provides an internationally recognised definition of a refugee and outlines the legal protection, rights, and assistance a refugee is entitled to receive. The core principle of the 1951 Convention is non-refoulement, which asserts that a refugee should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom (1951 Refugee Convention, Art.33). The document further outlines the basic minimum standards for the treatment of refugees, including the right to housing, work, and education while displaced, so they can lead a dignified and independent life. The document also defines an obligation of refugees to host countries. Initially, the 1951 Convention was limited to protecting European refugees in the aftermath of WWII. The 1967 Protocol, adopted later in 1967, removes these geographic and time-based limitations, and expands the Convention to apply universally and protect all persons fleeing conflict and persecution.
As of today, 149 states are party to the 1951 Convention and/or its 1967 Protocol. Egypt became one of them in 1981 (UNHCR, Rights Mapping and Analysis Platform). Becoming a state party to the 1951 Convention is a profound legal commitment. When a nation ratifies or accedes to this treaty, it voluntarily enters a binding contract with the international community, agreeing to uphold a set of universal humanitarian standards within its borders. A state, in this case Egypt, is legally anchored to the convention’s mandates, meaning that its domestic laws and executive norms must align with the treaty’s core protections.
As mentioned above, the most significant consequence of becoming a party to the Convention is the adoption of non-refoulement under Article 33 of the Convention. By joining the Convention, a state gives up on its absolute right to deport any foreign national at will; it is instead legally forbidden from returning a refugee to a territory where their life or freedom would be threatened. This obligation is absolute and applies regardless of whether the individual entered the country through official channels or using other ways. Moreover, by becoming a state party to the Convention, Egypt also has a partnership with the UNHCR. Under Article 35 of the Convention, the government commits transparency, granting the UNHCR a supervisory role to ensure that national asylum procedures meet international standards (1951 Refugee Convention, Art.35). Therefore, a state is responsible to its own citizens on the national level, but it is also responsible to the UN and other member states for any breach of the Convention. In practice, it could mean that while a state retains its sovereignty, its treatment of displaced people is no longer an exclusively internal affair, but a matter of international legal scrutiny. However, the Egyptian government decided to adopt domestic asylum legislation, Law No. 164 of 2024, which according to the UN Human Rights Council “would fall significantly short of international human rights and refugee law and other relevant standards” (Refugees International, 2025).
Reportedly, human rights groups in Egypt have expressed many concerns with the asylum law, including over the independence of the new Committee and the rush to shift to a new system without an agreed-upon transition process (eipr, 2024). The lawyers and human rights defenders believe that the ambiguity of the law threatened to lead to fewer rights and more deportations of refugees and asylum seekers, in contradiction of international standards and obligations (Refugees International, 2025). A Standing Committee for Refugees (SCRA) formed under this new law, takes over UNHCR’s long-standing role in registering and protecting refugees in Egypt. The issue here is not the creation of this committee or the government controlling these processes, but the fact that historically, the Egyptian government failed to consistently or comprehensively respect the rights of its own citizens, let alone the refugees (Amnesty International, 2024). The experts had a lot of concerns when this law was drafted and announced, for example, it would criminalise the irregular entry and provide informal aid to asylum seekers and deteriorate the situation of refugees and asylum-seekers in general.
The transition from an internationally supervised framework to a localised, state-controlled system under Law No. 164 represents a critical point in Egypt’s history as a State Party to the 1951 Convention. This departure from global standards does not merely represent an administrative change, but creates a legal environment where the absolute protections of the 1951 Conventions are replaced by discretionary domestic security mandates.
What’s Happening in Eqypt?
The theoretical concerns surrounding Law No. 164 of 2024 materialised into a humanitarian crisis in early 2026, as the Egyptian government shifted from legislative reform to aggressive enforcement. In recent months, the Egyptian authorities renewed their campaign of arbitrarily detaining and unlawfully deporting refugees and asylum seekers solely based on their irregular immigration status, and therefore, violating the principle of non-refoulement (Amnesty International, 2026).
Reportedly, since late December 2025, police officers in plain clothes have been arbitrarily rounding up nationals of Syria, Sudan, and South Sudan from the streets or their workplaces in cities across the country following identity checks (Amnesty International, 2026). Those found without valid residency permits and other documentation were driven away in unmarked vans, even when they provided UNHCR cards. Egypt and Libya Researcher at Amnesty International, Mahmoud Shalaby, stated:
Refugees who have fled war, persecution, or humanitarian crises should not be forced to live in daily fear of being arbitrarily arrested and deported back to a place where they are at risk of grave human rights violations. By forcibly expelling refugees and asylum seekers, Egyptian authorities are not only flagrantly flouting international human rights and refugee law, but they are also breaching the protections afforded in the country’s own recently passed asylum law prohibiting refoulement of recognised refugees.”
Amnesty International documented security forces’ arbitrary arrest of 22 refugees and asylum seekers, including one child and two women, from their homes. Of this group, security forces have deported one Syrian asylum seeker registered with UNHCR, the 21 others remain at risk of deportation, as the authorities have already begun their deportation procedures, even though prosecutors had ordered the release of 19 of them, while three had scheduled residency renewal appointments with the immigration department (Amnesty International, 2026).
The Egyptian government requires all foreign nationals in the country to regularise their status through an Egyptian sponsor and the payment of 1,000 USD. However, the refugees and asylum seekers registered with UNHCR are not subject to these requirements when renewing their residence permits (Relief Web, 2026). Many of the refugees and asylum seekers arrested in late December 2025 had scheduled appointments to renew their residency, moreover, the arbitrary arrests took place even in cases where refugees and asylum seekers were able to produce UNHCR cards (Amnesty International, 2026). For example. On January 23rd, 2026, police arrested a 40-year-old Syrian asylum seeker registered with UNHCR, just six days before his scheduled appointment with the General Administration of Passports, Immigration, and Nationality to renew his residence permit (Amnesty International, 2026). His family was later informed that unless they purchased a flight ticket to Syria for him, he would remain detained. The family complied, and even though he lived in Egypt for 12 years and fled the armed conflict in Syria, he was deported without an individualised assessment of the risks he might face upon return and despite prosecutor’s order for his release (Amnesty International, 2026).
The UN experts have expressed alarm over an intensifying campaign of deportations, arbitrary arrests and human rights violations targeting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Egypt. According to the UN, 1.5 million Sudanese nationals have fled to Egypt as of 29 January 2026. By December 2025, almost 1.1 million refugees and asylum seekers were registered with the UN Refugee Agency, including 834,201 Sudanese and 117,364 Syrians, the majority of whom are women and children (OHCHR, 2026). The experts noted that Egypt’s new asylum law adopted in 2024 raised immediate concerns due to provisions that could undermine the rights and protections of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and those concerns intensified in October 2025 amid a surge in arrests and deportations often based on alleged residence permit violations (OHCHR, 2026). The experts also noted:
We remind Egypt that any return or deportation order must be based on an individual assessment of protection needs and human rights obligations. This includes strict adherence to the principle of non-refoulement, the best interest of the child, non-discrimination, and the right to family life”.
The reports and articles about the situation in Egypt clearly show a severe breach of international law through collective expulsions. Hundreds of individuals, including families who fled active conflict zones, are being forcibly returned to danger without any individual assessment of their protection needs or access to legal counsel. The actions of the Egyptian government not only violates the international law and standards, but also has a huge psychological and economic toll on refugees and asylum seekers, as those in hiding can face a total loss of income and social support, while the constant threat of a knock at the door by security forces creates a state of permanent trauma for the most vulnerable residents of Egypt.
Conclusion
The crisis unfolding within Egypt’s borders is way bigger than a failure of domestic administration. By codifying a system that prioritises security vetting over the inherent dignity of the displaced, Egypt has effectively transformed the legal status of the refugee from a protected category into a precarious one. This shift establishes a dangerous precedent for the region and the broader international community.
When a primary host nation and a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention can systematically bypass the principle of non-refoulement under the guise of national security, the integrity of global refugee law is fundamentally compromised. The security sweeps and forced deportations of early 2026 serve as a stark warning that the laws designed to regulate the presence of refugees are meaningless if they do not simultaneously safeguard their lives. If the Egyptian government continues to utilise Law No. 164 as a tool for exclusion rather than a framework for protection, it is actively dismantling the very sanctuary it once pledged to provide.
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