Egypt hosts the fifth largest urban refugee population in the world. Although officially there are only 30,000 refugees in Egypt, unofficial estimates range from 500,000 asylum seekers and refugees upwards from 35 different nationalities. Most refugees are from Africa, the majority being from Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. There is also a large refugee population from Palestine. No one in Egypt was providing legal aid until AMERA (formerly known as refugee legal aid) began in 2000. As the sole provider of pro bono legal aid as a professional service in Egypt, AMERA has established working relationships with UNHCR and other refugee service providers. These connections enable it to effectively advocate for refugee rights. Egypt is generally tolerant of refugees and asylum seekers on its territory. A party to both the 1951 UN and 1969 OAU refugee conventions, long before ratification in 1981, Egypt alerted UNHCR Geneva [1] of its reservations to several of the articles regarding elementary education, public relief, the right to work, social security and personal status. This is especially significant as regards the right to work, leaving refugees dependent on the informal economy.

Despite the reservations, Egypt’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights to the Child gives all children the right to free primary education and Egypt. Consequently, refugee children can, in theory, exercise this right. However, in practice, because of the extreme pressure on Egyptian schools and the paperwork required by a refugee child to be accepted, it is difficult to fulfill that right.

Concerning employment, refugees are still assumed to require work permit as any foreigner, but the Government of Egypt has stopped stamping refugee cards with the prohibition on work. Refugees can access health services at government hospitals.

Due to lack of resources, UNHCR’s budget for assistance has been shrinking, limiting their already scarce monetary assistance to the neediest and providing only emergency medical care to thousands of asylum seekers. AMERA is unable to provide material help itself, but refers refugees to the few agencies that do.

[1] AMERA-UK is a member of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA) in Geneva which organizes, in co-operation with UNHCR, the Pre-ExCom meetings where NGOs can lobby for improvements in policy. ExCom refers to a group of representatives of governments who are on the Executive Committee of UNHCR.