HRW denounces that Egyptian diplomatic missions “export repression” against dissidents abroad

Their systematic refusal to care for exiles makes their lives impossible in the countries where they reside

March 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), specialized in monitoring the situation of Human Rights around the world, has denounced this Monday that the Egyptian authorities have been systematically refusing for years to provide or renew the identity documents of dozens of dissidents , journalists and human rights activists who live abroad, makes it impossible for them to access basic rights and nationalization processes.

Through more than twenty interviews with 26 Egyptian dissidents, journalists and lawyers, and the review of official documents, HRW denounces a “zero tolerance policy” towards the opposition of the Egyptian government led by the president, Abdelfatá Al Sisi, which has caused “one of the largest waves of political migration in the country’s recent history.”

After sparing no effort to crush domestic opposition and public dissent through mass arrests, unfair trials and rampant torture in detention, the government is intensifying its efforts to punish and silence those abroad. HRW Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Adam Coogle.

The dissidents and activists interviewed have denounced that it is almost impossible to challenge this refusal because embassies and consulates, such as those of Turkey, whose doors have been closed to opponents since 2018, “refuse to process requests for powers to authorize lawyers in Egypt to act on behalf of those abroad”.

These embassies limit themselves to refusing without explanation in most cases, but other opponents denounce that they have been accused of terrorism by the authorities and for this reason they are automatically disqualified from carrying out this type of procedure. Six of the interviewees accused of this charge assure that they are being victims of political persecution, such as an engineer residing in Germany who cannot start the nationalization procedures there because the Embassy does not attend to him.

Thus, HRW urges the Egyptian President and Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, to immediately order security agencies and diplomatic missions to remove all extra-legal impediments to the issuance of identity documents and to facilitate such requests.

Likewise, the NGO urges the countries where the affected dissidents reside to refrain from deporting these people, who are exposed to “persecution, torture or other serious harm upon return”, and to take into account the bureaucratic situation they suffer at the time of study their asylum applications.

Added to all this, Coogle denounces that Egyptian embassies and consulates “export government repression” to “destroy the livelihoods of Egyptians living in exile.” The consular blockade, he concludes, “has become an important aspect of the Egyptian government’s relentless attack on all forms of dissent.”