CAIRO — An 18-year-old who fled Sudan’s civil war seeking safety in Egypt instead died of pneumonia after spending more than three weeks in a filthy Cairo jail. Friends and relatives say Al-Nazir Al-Sadig endured beatings and was robbed by fellow inmates before his death.
Al-Sadig, a high school student, was swept up in what lawyers and human rights organizations describe as a wide-ranging crackdown on refugees — one that stands in stark contrast to Egypt’s reputation as a place of refuge.
Egypt pushes back against characterizations that it is hostile to refugees. The country took in more than a million people after war erupted in Sudan in 2023, serving as a barrier for those who might otherwise head north toward Europe. However, with an economic crisis mounting and public sentiment turning against migrants, authorities have adopted a far stricter posture, carrying out waves of arrests and deportations.
Beginning late last year, plainclothes security officers began detaining thousands of refugees and other migrants at their homes, workplaces, and on the street — pulling them into unmarked vehicles, according to accounts from 45 refugees, seven lawyers, and eight advocates. Some refugees have chosen to return to conflict-ridden Sudan on their own rather than risk forced family separation. Others have gone into hiding, as activists warn that a newly enacted law could further weaken protections for asylum seekers.
Three Egyptian security officials, speaking anonymously and citing figures not previously made public, said authorities have deported more than 5,500 people since November. That marks a dramatic surge compared to roughly 100 formal deportations annually in both 2023 and 2024. Egypt does not release detailed immigration data, and the figures could not be independently confirmed by Reuters.
Reuters documented three deaths of Sudanese refugees inside Egypt’s overcrowded detention facilities this year: a 30-year-old man who collapsed within 72 hours of being detained, a 67-year-old man with diabetes, and the teenager Al-Sadig. Two of the security officials said a total of nine Sudanese nationals had died while in custody, though they provided no details about the circumstances. The additional deaths could not be independently verified.
Ten people who had been held in police-run facilities described refugees sleeping in shifts due to a lack of floor space, physical abuse, theft of food and clothing, and unsanitary conditions. One Eritrean refugee detained during the crackdown described a violent sexual assault by other female inmates — an account supported by medical records from a Cairo hospital.
Karim Ennarah of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights called the scale of the campaign “unprecedented,” saying it violates Egypt’s obligations under international law, which limits the deportation of refugees.
“Protection as it existed in Egypt for decades has collapsed,” he said.
Egypt’s State Information Service told Reuters that deportation is “generally carried out only though clear legal procedures and judicial guarantees,” and only when someone is found to have broken the law or poses a national security threat. Officials denied that any broad campaign targeting refugees is underway.
The Egyptian government has maintained that isolated incidents do not represent state policy, pointing out that millions of Sudanese and other migrants live, work, and study in Egypt and have access to public services including schools and healthcare.
According to United Nations figures, Egypt ranked second globally in asylum applications in 2025 — something the information service cited as evidence of “the confidence of individuals seeking protection” in the country.
CHOOSING WAR OVER DEPORTATION
At a bus stop in central Cairo, a 40-year-old schoolteacher named Hosna waited with her four children among hundreds of others preparing to travel back to Sudan. She said she feared her two teenage sons could be arrested — despite the family having U.N. refugee status obtained upon their arrival two years ago, they were still waiting for an Egyptian residency appointment. She said children from two families in her apartment building had already been detained and sent back.
“I came here searching for safety but there is no safety. It’s better to die in my country than lose my children,” said Hosna, who gave only her first name.
More than a dozen refugees, including Hosna, expressed deep concern about returning to Sudan, where the capital Khartoum faces frequent drone strikes and barely functioning public services — even as the army reclaimed control from paramilitary forces last year and the government has encouraged residents to return.
Sudan’s information ministry did not respond to a request for comment regarding deportations from Egypt or the dangers deportees may face upon return.
The civil war that began in 2023 has driven millions from their homes amid ethnically motivated violence and campaigns of ethnic cleansing, including a massacre in Darfur. Millions of people are surviving on one meal a day in what has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
A new asylum law passed by Egypt in 2024 gives refugees the right to work and access education and healthcare. However, it drew criticism from UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, for granting officials broad discretion over who qualifies for refugee status.
Ennarah said implementing regulations published this month fall short of protecting refugees from refoulement — the forced return of people to places where their lives or freedom are in danger.
“The law’s expanded grounds for denial and revocation risk codifying the crackdown,” he said.
In its statement to Reuters, the Egyptian government said the law “affirms respect for human dignity and the principle of non-refoulement” and protects refugees from discrimination and inhumane treatment.
UNHCR said it is troubled by the arrests, detentions, and deportations, including of women and children who are registered with the U.N.
“Returns to Sudan should not take place under the current circumstances, given the ongoing conflict and humanitarian situation, which do not allow for safe and sustainable return,” UNHCR said in response to Reuters questions, while acknowledging the pressure the refugee crisis has placed on public services.
Security sources said Egypt has previously deported Sudanese migrants, including turning thousands away at the border. But the current campaign has more frequently targeted urban areas, including Cairo, and has in some cases affected people who had been living in Egypt for years before the conflict began.
More than 1.1 million people are registered with UNHCR in Egypt, the vast majority of them Sudanese, along with Syrians, Eritreans, and others. The European Union pledged Egypt 7.4 billion euros in 2024, partly in recognition of Egypt’s role in absorbing migrants who might otherwise travel north toward Europe.
INSIDE THE CELLS
On January 18, a white minibus stopped abruptly outside Al-Sadig’s home as he stood with three friends. Plainclothes men got out and arrested all of them, according to his sister Nadia.
Al-Sadig had crossed borders from Sudan’s capital Khartoum with his family in October 2024, settling in Badr, a suburb east of Cairo. Hoping to return to Sudan quickly, he had not taken steps to legalize his presence in Egypt, two family members said.
He was placed in a cell holding more than 140 inmates in a space measuring roughly 6 meters by 6 meters, thick with cigarette smoke. One of the friends detained alongside him, Nabil Suleiman, told Reuters that criminal detainees robbed Al-Sadig.
“It was suffocating. There was no oxygen. Only one broken AC,” Suleiman said.
Al-Sadig told relatives during visits that other prisoners were taking the food they brought him, his sister Nadia said. Inmates survived on jail rations of bread and cheese, Suleiman said. Water came from a hose inside a toilet area. Clothing was stolen by other inmates, including Al-Sadig’s sweater, leaving him shivering during Cairo’s cold winter nights.
During his mother’s last visit, Al-Sadig complained of a chest infection and asked for medicine, saying none was available in the jail, according to Nadia and another family member. The following day, a police officer called to inform the family he had died.
The public prosecutor’s office listed pneumonia as the cause of death, Nadia said, citing a judicial official who oversaw the case. Reuters could not independently confirm the cause of death. The information service did not respond to questions about Al-Sadig’s case.
That same day, Suleiman and the others who had been detained with Al-Sadig were deported to the Sudanese border town of Halfa. Speaking to Reuters from Omdurman — Khartoum’s twin city — where he is currently unemployed, Suleiman described an agonizing 18-hour journey to the border in Egyptian custody, hands and legs chained, with no food, water, or sleep. He said he was given no explanation for the deportation.
Nine other former detainees described similar experiences: extreme overcrowding, scarce food, dirty water, theft, beatings by other inmates, and mistreatment or indifference from guards. Sudanese and darker-skinned refugees were said to be particularly targeted by other inmates.
A 23-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker who said he spent three weeks in a police station described being charged for basic necessities — including a spot on the floor to sleep. Those who refused to pay were forced to remain standing.
“This is when you suffer from hallucinations,” he said.
An Eritrean tea seller in Cairo, who showed Reuters her Egyptian residency card and U.N. refugee documentation, said she was arrested by plainclothes officers while working in August. One officer tore her residency permit, she said. While held in a police lockup, she said three female convicts sexually assaulted her. Medical records from Cairo’s Mostafa Mahmoud clinic confirmed she was treated after her release for uterine bleeding. The hospital confirmed the records were authentic but declined to comment further.
Now 40 years old, she said she is too frightened to leave her home and, without income, is relying on charity from neighbors to survive.
Abazar Youssef, 37, a dual British-Sudanese citizen, was visiting family in Egypt on a tourist visa when he was caught in a January 25 raid in downtown Cairo. During two weeks of detention, he said he witnessed criminals assaulting, blackmailing, and extorting refugees. He said police officers regularly beat detainees during morning lineups. He was deported to Britain on February 14. The British embassy in Cairo confirmed it had provided consular assistance to a detained British national and had been in contact with Egyptian authorities regarding the case.
