World

Egypt Sees Its Refugees as a Problem and an Opportunity

Published

1 year ago

January 9, 2025

Egypt Sees Its Refugees as a Problem and an Opportunity

In easier times for Egypt’s refugees, Azza Mostafa, a pro-government TV anchor, had nothing but generous words for the many thousands of Syrians who had built new lives in Egypt after their own country imploded into civil war in 2011.

“I’d like to say to our Syrian families and our brothers in Egypt,” she said in a 2019 broadcast, “you’ve truly brought light to Egypt.”

But there she was on her show in June, fulminating against Egypt’s growing number of outsiders — an echo of the country’s leaders, whose policy toward refugees and migrants has hardened as they wrestle with an economic crisis made worse by wars in neighboring Gaza, Sudan and Libya.

“This has become unbearable,” Ms. Mostafa said, accusing migrants of driving up rents and promoting female genital mutilation. “There are many acts of overstepping bounds. Is that acceptable? After we opened our country for them?”

Egypt long made it easy for foreigners of all kinds to live and work in the country, largely without interference, whether they were refugees, migrant workers or Westerners escaping coronavirus lockdowns.

The past 13 years have brought a near unbroken stream of newcomers fleeing conflict to the country that is known among Arabs as the “mother of the world.” That includes not just Syrians but also Sudanese, Yemenis, Eritreans and, most recently, Palestinians from Gaza.

Egypt’s lax immigration rules meant many never formally registered as refugees or received official permission to stay long-term, yet managed to stitch themselves almost seamlessly into the country, supporting themselves and sometimes starting businesses.

Since Sudan’s civil war drove a surge of refugees to Egypt starting in 2023, however, the impoverished government in Cairo has complained louder and louder about the burden of foreigners. It rapidly tightened its policies — hoping, analysts and diplomats say, to win more support from international backers eager to prevent migration to their own countries.

Egypt says it spends $10 billion each year on its nine million refugees, according to officials and government-controlled media (though experts say both numbers are greatly exaggerated), all while Egyptians endure soaring prices and subsidy cuts.

Years of government overspending, reliance on imports and policies that neglected private-sector growth left the country’s finances in precarious shape before the wars in Ukraine and Gaza sent them crashing. Egypt lost $7 billion in crucial revenue from the Suez Canal in 2024 as the conflict in Gaza has squeezed shipping in the Red Sea, according to government officials.

With Egypt deep in debt and hard-pressed to pay for imports such as wheat and energy, the currency has crashed, while some goods have become difficult to find.

Ahmed Abu Al-Yazid, the head of a government-owned sugar firm, the Delta Sugar Company, blamed refugees for a sugar shortage that experts link to the economic crisis. The president accused them of draining Egypt’s precious water. On social media, pro-government accounts — some of which appeared to be fake — accused Sudanese refugees of driving up rents and promoting female genital mutilation.

A crackdown soon followed the accusations, according to migrants, refugees and their advocates.

Sudanese refugees have been rounded up in police sweeps, detained and summarily deported. Syrians who have lived in Egypt for years have been told to pay thousands of dollars to stay. Many remain hesitant to return, despite the fall of the Assad regime in December, until the situation stabilizes.

Foreign workers from Asia and from other parts of Africa now face extra hurdles to keep their legal status, and in some cases, have been arrested to compel them to pay high fees, advocates say.

Last month, Egypt passed a law that would hand responsibility for screening refugees and others to the government, instead of to the United Nations refugee agency.

Government officials said the measure would ensure a wide array of refugee rights. Critics of the move, however, said that it would become far harder for refugees to gain protection or access to health care and schools. The law also empowers the government to revoke refugee status on vague grounds such as breaches of national security, political activity or violations of Egyptian social customs.

Abu Saleh, 32, a Syrian who works in a small Cairo grocery, said he had lived in the city for 13 years “without a single issue” until he discovered in July that he could no longer enroll his son in school without a residence permit.

Just to renew his family’s tourist visas, he said, he was told that he would have to return to Syria and pay $2,000 per person in fees — a process he would have to repeat every six months.

“Egypt has been there for us all along,” said Abu Saleh, who asked to be identified by the name he uses around town to avoid possible repercussions. “I’d like to appeal to the government of Egypt: Give us residence, even if it’s a little more expensive. We’re facing tough conditions.”

Egypt has not explained its hardening attitude toward foreigners. But analysts and migrant advocates tie it to the economic crisis, which has generated widespread bitterness and undermined President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s rule.

The newcomers make convenient scapegoats for Egyptians’ hardships, rights groups say. Immigration fees, charged in dollars, can supply some of the foreign currency that Egypt badly needs. And foreigners are also valuable pawns in Egypt’s quest for more financial support from its international partners, rights groups say.

“They think, ‘How can these people be useful for the government?’” said Nour Khalil, executive director of the Refugees Platform in Egypt, which advocates for migrants’ rights.

The U.N. refugee agency counts about 818,000 registered refugees in Egypt, who are entitled to free public health care and education. There are likely many more unregistered refugees, though analysts and aid workers dispute the figure reaches nine million.

The benefits that registered refugees receive mean that Egypt “is treating them like Egyptians, despite the fact that we are not a rich country,” the foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, said at a news conference last month. “There is no country in the world assuming these responsibilities and challenges like here in Egypt. We don’t have one single refugee camp — they are fully integrated in society.”

Refugee advocates agree that Egypt needs more resources. Unlike other countries in the region, including Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, where the United States, the United Nations and the European Union have poured billions into supporting refugees, Egypt has not received significant funds to help house Syrian or other refugees.

That is changing.

As the war in Gaza has pounded Egypt’s finances, Western backers have rushed to Egypt’s aid, anxious to prevent an economic collapse in the Arab world’s most populous country, analysts and diplomats say. A crash in Egypt could further destabilize the Middle East and send a deluge of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, where there is heavy public pressure to restrict migration.

The European Union pledged a fast-tracked $8 billion aid package to Egypt in March, echoing deals the bloc has struck with Mauritania, Tunisia and Turkey that funded migration enforcement in those countries.

Other backers, including the International Monetary Fund, have sent billions more to stabilize Egypt’s economy.

Critics say the European pact with Egypt, like the bloc’s other migration deals, is enabling rights abuses by rewarding Mr. el-Sisi’s authoritarianism and potentially funding the current crackdown on migrants.

Groups including Amnesty International and the Refugees Platform in Egypt have documented what they say is a pattern of mass arbitrary arrests and unlawful deportations of Sudanese refugees — some detained as they were smuggled across the border, others rounded up during random sweeps of predominantly Sudanese neighborhoods.

Some Syrians, too, have been expelled, Mr. Khalil of the refugees platform said. His group has also documented more than 50 arrests of foreign workers, some of whom already had residency, who were held until they paid $1,000 in fees and fines, he said.

An atmosphere of fear has brought throngs of Sudanese to the doorstep of the U.N. refugee agency in Cairo, seeking formal protection. But refugee status can take months, if not years, to obtain: Appointments to begin the process are not available until late 2025. And some of the Sudanese who have been detained and deported, Mr. Khalil said, held some form of U.N. identification, casting doubt on whether the organization could guarantee security.

Among those waiting outside one morning was Mohammed Abdelwahab, 36. By the time he and his family tried to cross the border from Sudan this spring, Egypt had tightly restricted what had been free-flowing movement between the two countries, so they resorted to smugglers instead.

Without legal papers, Mr. Abdelwahab and his 14-year-old son, Mohanad, collected plastic bottles on Cairo’s streets for a living. Mr. Abdelwahab was looking for better work one day in June when Mohanad disappeared.

Twenty days later, Mohanad resurfaced with a WhatsApp message: He had been rounded up with a group of other Sudanese and deported.

Mr. Abdelwahab had been looking for Mohanad in another city. When he returned to Cairo, his wife and three other children had been evicted for nonpayment.

“It’s indescribable,” he said. “Now they’re all camping out here,” he added, referring to his family and indicating the sidewalk in front of the refugee agency, where groups of other Sudanese waited listlessly in the sun.

Emad Mekay and Rania Khaled contributed reporting.

Related Topics:Abdel Fattah el-Cairo (Egypt)egypt europe European Union Featured Sisi Sudan Syria United Nations High Commission for Refugees

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World

‘Hamnet’ Spoofed in ‘SNL U.K.’ Sketch in Which Shakespeare Returns From London With Ketamine, ‘Team Anne Boleyn’ Tote and ‘C—y Little Earring’

Published

9 hours ago

March 22, 2026

Press Room

‘Hamnet’ Spoofed in ‘SNL U.K.’ Sketch in Which Shakespeare Returns From London With Ketamine, ‘Team Anne Boleyn’ Tote and ‘C—y Little Earring’

A very different version of William Shakespeare showed up in the first episode of “SNL U.K,” appearing in a sketch that took comic aim at the biggest British film from this year’s awards season.

In “SNL U.K.’s” version of “Hamnet,” an increasingly Gen-Z hipster Bard returns home from staging plays in London to his doting wife (played by Tina Fey) and family.

“Dost thou not think I appear changed?” he asks on his first time back home. “I got a cunty little earring!”

Later returns to the family home see him on an electric scooter, brandishing a tote bag saying ‘Team Anne Boleyn,’ and proudly showing off “me slutty little chain.”

“London hath changed thee,” Fey’s Agnes Hathaway asserts.

“Thou art in Stratford upon Avon, and I’ve been in London upon ketamine,” says Shakespeare. “I’m like Charlie Xcx, sorry, Charlie 10 100 10. I’m in my glow up era, honey.”

In keeping with the plot of the film, Hamnet is seen falling ill, having “taken the powder” from a new purse. But as Shakespeare notes: “He’ll be fine. Tis but a K-hole.”

Following the “Hamnet” sketch, “SNL U.K.” poked fun at another beloved British institution in a skit in which a Paddington Bear immersive experience sees an actual bear let loose upon guests.

“That was amazing. I’ve lost half my face,” says one. “I always thought that three kids was a bit too many, and now I’ve got the optimum amount … none!,” adds another.

“In retrospect, maybe hot glue-gunning the hat to the bear’s head may have made it more angry,” explains Fay’s experience organiser. “I’m taking it to Broadway regardless”

Studiocanal, which has the rights to Paddington Bear and has its very own Paddington experience in London, has already sued the makers of comedy show “Spitting Image” over their depiction of the bear as a drug-taking, foul-mouthed podcast host. It’ll be interesting to see what they make of this one.

World

Trump proven right on Iran’s long-range missile capability as regime targets US-UK base, experts say

Published

10 hours ago

March 22, 2026

Press Room

Trump proven right on Iran’s long-range missile capability as regime targets US-UK base, experts say

Iran fires missiles toward US-UK military base

Fox News senior correspondent Mike Tobin reports on Iran launching missiles toward a joint U.S.-U.K. military base, while Netanyahu advisor Caroline Glick provides analysis on ‘Fox News Live.’

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The Islamic Republic of Iran significantly escalated its war effort against the U.S. with its launch of two intermediate-range ballistic missiles on Friday toward Diego Garcia, a key U.S.-U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean.

The targeting of Diego Garcia, roughly 2,500 miles from Iran, means Tehran’s missile capabilities appear to have exceeded previously acknowledged limits.

In the period leading up to Operation Epic Fury Feb. 28, Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed, “We intentionally kept the range of our missiles below 2,000 kilometers so we don’t have that capability. And we don’t want to do that because we do not have hostility against the United States people and all Europeans.”

TRUMP VOWS TO HIT IRAN ‘VERY HARD’ AFTER OBLITERATING NEARLY ’90 PERCENT’ OF REGIME MISSILES

Map from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies showing Iran’s missile ranges. (The Foundation for Defense of Democracies)

On Saturday, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said, “Just yesterday, Iran launched a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,000 kilometers [2,500 miles] toward an American target on the island of Diego Garcia. These missiles were not intended to hit Israel. Their range reaches the capitals of Europe — Berlin, Paris and Rome are all within direct threat range.”

IDF spokesman Nadav Shoshani blasted the alleged Iranian deception on X, writing, “Just 3 days before the war, the Iranian regime said they don’t obtain long-range missiles. Today, their lies were exposed once again, when missiles were fired 4000km away from Iran. They hoped to lie their way into becoming a force that can terrorize the world. We didn’t buy it.”

Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Fox News Digital, “The Trump administration, in citing Iran’s missile threat as a rationale for Operation Epic Fury, was therefore justified in its decision to undertake military action as Iran has consistently refused to negotiate over its missile program.

“It also shows how dangerous it is to solely rely on Iranian nuclear weapons fatwas and the supreme leader’s public rhetoric in formulating U.S. policy. As long as Iran retains the technical capability beyond public pronouncements, it is a threat.”

BEFORE-AND-AFTER SATELLITE IMAGERY OFFERS A RARE LOOK AT DAMAGE INSIDE IRAN

A banner depicting Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is placed next to a ballistic missile in Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 26, 2024, on the sideline of an exhibition marking the 44th anniversary of the start of Iran-Iraq war. (Hossein Beris /Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

“I think it’s a message that the IRGC is in charge in Iran after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s death,” Brodsky said. “When Khamenei was alive, he limited the range of Iran’s missile program to 2,000 kilometers. Khamenei recounted in 2018 how he had rejected overtures from IRGC commanders seeking to increase the range to as much as 5,000 kilometers.

“But now that he has died, those voices in the IRGC seeking to increase the range are likely driving the agenda. The launch of the missiles was likely meant as a signal of the IRGC’s capabilities to threaten U.S. allies beyond the Middle East. For example, this threatens Europe.”

The two long-range Iranian missiles did not hit the base, but the attempted attack marked a significant expansion of Iran’s reach beyond the Middle East and toward a major U.S. strategic hub. One missile reportedly failed in flight, while a U.S. warship launched an SM-3 interceptor at the other, officials said. It was not immediately clear whether the interception was successful. The remote base is a critical launch point for U.S. bombers, nuclear submarines and other strategic assets.

Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, D.C., told Fox News Digital, “The launch hammers home the president’s point about Iran being an imminent threat. It’s easy for casual observers to ignore, but the increasing maturity of Iran’s strategic programs, plural, has been exponentially expanding the threat that the Islamic Republic poses beyond the Middle East.

“That is what Epic Fury is seeking to address. The administration believes, absolutely correctly in my view, that these types of capabilities cannot be left in the hands of a radical, predatory regime.

HEZBOLLAH, IRAN UNLEASH COORDINATED CLUSTER BOMB STRIKES ON ISRAEL IN MAJOR ESCALATION

Israeli air defense systems are activated to intercept Iranian missiles over the Israeli city of Tel Aviv amid a fresh barrage of Iranian rockets June 16, 2025. (Menahem Kahanna/AFP via Getty Images)

“Despite its public denials, it’s been clear that the Iranian regime has been working on expanding the range of its ballistic missile capabilities for years. The launch toward Diego Garcia confirms that it has made real progress toward that goal and is already able to put targets in the same range as Central and Eastern Europe at risk. Moreover, it’s clear that the regime is seeking still greater capabilities and that, if left intact, Iran’s ballistic missiles would attain intercontinental range soon.”

Berman, the author of “Iran’s Deadly Ambition: The Islamic Republic’s Quest for Global Power,” added, “The parallel development Iran has been carrying out on its space program is significant. The booster used to put payloads into orbit can be married onto a medium-range missile to create intercontinental range capabilities. Before the war, we were seeing a clear convergence of the regime’s strategic programs: its ballistic missile work, its space capabilities and its nuclear program.”

A U.S. B-2 Spirit bomber, part of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, stops for refueling at the U.S. military base on Diego Garcia in October 2001 after an airstrike mission over Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. (U.S. Department of Defense/Senior Airman Rebeca M. Luquin)

He warned about the serious Iranian threat to continental Europe.

“Europe is absolutely at risk as the recent launch makes clear,” Berman said. “I wouldn’t say that a failure to recognize this to date has been due to a grand deception by Tehran, though. It is more attributable to willful blindness on the part of European elites about the extent of the threat that the Iranian regime poses as well as undue faith in diplomacy and arms control in containing it.”

On Saturday, the United Kingdom condemned the attack.

“Iran’s reckless attacks, lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in a statement. “RAF jets and other U.K. military assets are continuing to defend our people and personnel in the region.

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“This government has given permission to the U.S. to use British bases for specific and limited defensive operations.”

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.

Benjamin Weinthal reports on Israel, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Europe. You can follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal, and email him at benjamin.weinthal@fox.com

World

Macron pushes tougher EU digital action ahead of key votes

Published

11 hours ago

March 22, 2026

Press Room

Macron pushes tougher EU digital action ahead of key votes

Published on
20/03/2026 – 14:39 GMT+1

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to step up enforcement of EU digital regulations to combat foreign election interference ahead of key elections in 2026 and 2027, according to a letter dated March 16 and seen by Euronews.

The call comes as concerns grow in France about potential election meddling before next year’s presidential race. French security services have identified several interference cases —including from Russia— during the ongoing municipal campaign, with the second round set for Sunday.

“In a geopolitical context marked by a multiplication of hostile stances against the European model and its democratic values, it is crucial that the Union, and with it each Member State, prepare to ensure the integrity of civic discourse and electoral processes, the fairness of elections, and optimal protection against interference operations and information manipulation,” Macron wrote.

Eleven EU countries head to the polls in 2026, with further key elections in 2027 in France, Italy and Poland, where Eurosceptic parties are polling strongly.

Call for rapid EU action

Macron urged von der Leyen to update guidelines originally introduced ahead of the 2024 European elections, pressing platforms such as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram’s X and Tik Tok to strengthen their efforts under the EU’s landmark content moderation framework, the Digital Services Act (DSA).

“It’s not about overhauling the DSA, it’s about ensuring it is fully enforced regarding the obligations placed on platforms—namely, assessing and mitigating systemic risks that could disrupt electoral processes,” a French official said.

The letter specifically calls for curbing the virality driven by algorithms, labelling content generated or modified by artificial intelligence, removing fake accounts and respecting transparency obligations for political advertising included in the DSA.

“The Commission must be able, on the basis of reports it receives, to take all the measures allowed under the Digital Services Act (DSA), from injunctions and safeguard measures to sanctions,” the same official said.

Under the DSA, online platforms face fines of up to 6% of global annual revenue.

Probes have already been opened these last years into suspected interference, including against Meta ahead of the 2024 European Parliament vote and against TikTok over its handling of election-related risks during Romania’s November 2024 presidential election.

In Romania, concerns over TikTok’s role in the first-round win of ultranationalist and pro-Russian Călin Georgescu led in 2024 to the annulment of the vote after declassified intelligence documents indicated he may have benefited from coordinated accounts and algorithmic amplification on the platform.

According to Emmanuel Macron, Brussels and EU capitals must be “able to build a genuine complementary strike force, capable of rapid action,” to prevent such foreign interferences.