Human Rights Watch: Egypt Arresting and Deporting Refugees Amid Residency Renewal Backlogs

Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that Egyptian authorities have been arresting, detaining and deporting refugees and asylum seekers because their residency permits expired while they waited through government renewal backlogs, including some people who were carrying valid documents from the U.N. refugee agency.

The rights group said the pattern highlights a growing protection gap in a country that, according to UNHCR, was hosting more than 1.1 million registered refugees and asylum seekers as of May 2026. UNHCR data show that registered refugee numbers in Egypt have risen about 281% since 2022, largely after war broke out in Sudan in April 2023. At the same time, Human Rights Watch said, some people seeking to renew residency permits are being given appointments as late as 2027 or 2028.

“Refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt are losing their residency status because of bureaucratic delays, and are being jailed and deported for lacking the very documents the government has failed to provide,” Michelle Randhawa, senior refugee and migrant rights officer at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Human Rights Watch published its report, “Egypt: Refugees, Asylum Seekers Arrested, Deported,” on July 7. It said it interviewed 19 refugees and asylum seekers from South Sudan, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia in April and May 2026 and found that Egyptian authorities had intensified arrests, detention and deportations since late 2025, often based solely on expired residency permits.

The findings add to concerns raised by other organizations this year. In March, U.N. experts warned about reports of arbitrary arrests and deportations in Egypt, saying the actions were reportedly being carried out without individualized assessments of refoulement risk — meaning whether someone would face persecution or other serious harm if returned. “[P]ractices of arbitrary arrest and deportations continue, with refugee communities being targeted in their homes, workplaces and even in refugee led service centres,” the experts said. Amnesty International also documented at least 22 arbitrary arrests of refugees and asylum seekers between late December 2025 and Feb. 5, 2026.

Human Rights Watch included the account of a 27-year-old South Sudanese man who, it said, held a UNHCR card and had a residency renewal appointment scheduled for September 2028 but was deported to Juba on April 1, 2026. The organization presented that as an interview account; it did not provide it as an independently verified case record. In June, Reuters also reported accounts of poor detention conditions and deaths in custody involving refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt.

Under current Egyptian practice, refugees and asylum seekers must renew residency every year. Human Rights Watch said the system has become so delayed that people can be left without valid residency papers for years while waiting for appointments. The group said some of those arrested had valid UNHCR registration or asylum seeker documents but were still detained because their Egyptian residency had expired.

Human Rights Watch said it sent detailed questions to Egypt’s Foreign Ministry on June 23 and had received no response by the time the report was published. In comments reported by Reuters in June, however, Egypt’s State Information Service said deportation is “generally carried out only though clear legal procedures and judicial guarantees,” and only when “an individual is proven to have broken the law or to pose a national security threat.”

The dispute comes as Egypt is overhauling its asylum system. Egypt’s Asylum Law No. 164 of 2024, signed in December 2024, created the country’s first formal national asylum framework and shifts refugee status determination from UNHCR to a new Permanent Committee for Refugee Affairs under the prime minister. The law’s executive regulations were published on May 21, 2026, and were set to take effect three months later.

Human Rights Watch, UNHCR and other groups have said the law and its bylaws do not clearly resolve the current backlog in residency and asylum processing. They have also raised concern that the framework does not explicitly include the principle of non-refoulement, the core protection under refugee law that bars sending people back to places where they may face persecution or serious harm. Egypt is a party to both the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention, which prohibit such returns.

Human Rights Watch said Egyptian authorities should halt arrests and deportations tied to expired residency permits for refugees and asylum seekers caught in administrative delays, and create temporary protection for people waiting for appointments.