Sudanese refugee Mahasin Ali captures part of the paradox experienced by thousands of refugees in Egypt. She told Alhurra that she receives 3,040 Egyptian pounds per month—about $58—from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Cairo, while the rent for her housing alone amounts to 4,000 pounds, excluding other living expenses.
Mahasin, a mother supporting five children on her own, explains that she is forced to work day-to-day jobs just to secure the bare minimum of food and drink for her family. But her situation, she says, is not an exception, as the UNHCR is facing a worsening funding crisis that has made even these limited forms of assistance irregular in reaching those who need them.
On the other hand, Christine Beshay, External Relations Officer at UNHCR in Egypt, speaks of increasing pressure facing the organization in Cairo, amid official discourse seeking to highlight the scale of the burden borne by the host state.
Beshay told Alhurra that “responding to the situation of refugees is a shared international responsibility, and host countries cannot bear it alone,” referring to what the agency describes as the need for burden- and responsibility-sharing at the international level.
With the growing public discussion of the financial crisis facing UNHCR in Egypt, an intensifying domestic debate has emerged about refugees and the state’s ability to bear their burden amid an economic crisis that has persisted for years. Egypt is facing significant financial pressures, with its external debt reaching approximately $164 billion by the end of 2025. In this context, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aaty stated during a ministerial meeting of leading African countries implementing the Global Compact for Migration that the number of refugees in Egypt has exceeded 10.5 million, and that international support for Cairo remains limited.
This official discourse has resonated with some media voices that have gone so far as to place part of the blame for deteriorating economic conditions on refugees. Media figure Mohamed Ali Khair called for the deportation of refugees, arguing that they place pressure on public facilities, security, and limited resources. On his Facebook page, he questioned the value of their continued presence in the country, repeating accusations related to aid, resources, and pressure on services.
However, this language, which reduces millions of people to numbers or an economic burden, overlooks individual stories like Mahasin’s. The Sudanese woman, who suffers from hearing problems as a result of the war in her country, says her health condition has reduced her chances of employment and worsened her living difficulties. The daily work she relies on does not provide a stable income, nor does it guarantee covering her children’s basic needs.
The rising rhetoric against refugees appears inseparable from an Egyptian official discourse—governmental and media alike—that has intensified in recent years, focusing on the state’s burden of hosting nearly 10 million refugees and migrants, in addition to more than 100 million citizens, and how these numbers strain infrastructure and services. In January 2026, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced a process involving multiple government agencies to count the number of refugees and migrants residing in Egypt, aimed at “securing the necessary support from international organizations” and easing the burden on the government, according to his remarks during a January 13 meeting.
Government Discourse Fuels Public Rejection
In this climate, a growing sentiment among some Egyptians views refugees as a direct cause of the economic crisis. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, an independent human rights organization, stated in a study published before the end of last March that the first months of this year witnessed a rise in hashtags calling for the deportation of refugees, particularly Syrians and Sudanese. The study noted that around 8,000 posts carried the hashtag #Deportation, engaged 26,000 accounts, and reached approximately 6 million users in just six days. It added that these posts relied on misleading information blaming refugees and migrants for economic hardships.
The organization considered that the transformation of these hashtags into widely engaged trends reveals “an investment in shaping public perception against refugees and migrants and legitimizing exclusionary policies.”
In contrast, writer and international relations researcher Sherine Helal told Alhurra that some irregular refugee activity contributes to economic problems, such as tax evasion, lack of labor insurance, electricity theft, and unfair competition due to lower operational costs in some businesses, arguing that this has contributed to Egyptians leaving certain labor markets.
Helal adds that public rejection of refugees in Egypt cannot be separated from a broader global context, including Europe and the United States and the rise of the right in some countries. She says Egypt “is not an exception,” and that anger among segments of Egyptians should not be interpreted as racism, but rather as a “reaction” after many years of hosting.
Amid this debate, UNHCR in Egypt revealed an increase in digital attacks against refugee women. On its official Facebook page, it stated that the spread of misinformation exacerbates racism and gender-based discrimination, calling for confronting online hate speech. Observers noted that some comments on the agency’s post included accounts of refugee men and women being subjected to bullying and violence due to their appearance and skin color.
Nevertheless, Helal rejects describing some negative attitudes toward refugees in Egypt as racism. She says that a people who have “hosted millions of migrants with generosity for thousands of years” do not deserve such a label, and that the international community—which established the asylum system—is obligated to fulfill its commitments toward Egypt.
Challenges in Implementing the New Refugee Law
In 2024, Egypt passed its first legislation regulating the affairs of refugees and asylum seekers, stipulating the formation of a “Permanent Committee for Refugee Affairs” affiliated with the Cabinet to manage various related files. Ambassador Salah El-Din Abdel Sadeq Ahmed was appointed as its head. Under the law, a refugee, once granted legal status, is entitled to rights including obtaining a travel document, protection from extradition to their home country, and the right to education. However, this law came late, more than 13 years after major waves of asylum began arriving in Egypt following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011.
Despite the law’s issuance, the Egyptian government still does not clearly distinguish in practice between refugees and migrants in its public discourse. According to UNHCR data as of April 15, there are about 1.1 million registered refugees in Egypt from 63 countries, including more than 800,000 Sudanese, 100,000 Syrians, and 55,000 South Sudanese, in addition to refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, and other countries. Nevertheless, the government continues to cite figures that merge refugees, migrants, and foreign residents in general, including those working or investing in the country.
Dr. Mohamed Mahmoud Mehran, a professor of international law, told Alhurra that Egypt represents a special case due to its geographic location, which makes it a major hub for regional displacement waves. He added that the state seeks to integrate refugees into society and provide them with basic services without discrimination, while rejecting camp policies or the isolation of migrants.
At the same time, Mehran noted that the problem lies not in the absence of a legal framework, but in weak implementation mechanisms and irregular administrative procedures, which, according to him, create a “practical fragility” experienced by refugees on the ground despite the existence of regulating legislation, in addition to the funding crisis.
A Worsening Funding Crisis
The UNHCR funding crisis is directly reflected in refugees’ conditions. In a statement published on its website, the agency announced that since May 2025 it has reduced the number of families receiving regular cash assistance, limiting support to the most vulnerable cases due to a severe funding shortage.
For Mahasin, the biggest monthly challenge is not only the small amount, but also the delays—sometimes by two consecutive months—which leaves her unable to pay rent and places her and her children in even more difficult situations.
In a development seemingly linked to the crisis, UNHCR officials met with Egypt’s “Decent Life” (Hayat Karima) initiative—which operates service projects in Egyptian villages—to discuss providing support to refugees. However, this meeting sparked objections in media circles, with some commentators arguing that the initiative’s funds should go only to Egyptians. Media figures Ahmed Moussa and Youssef El-Husseini publicly criticized the issue before some of their statements or posts were deleted, reflecting the sensitivity of the issue and its overlap with official discourse emphasizing that Egypt already bears significant burdens due to hosting refugees.
Christine Beshay clarified that cooperation with “Hayat Karima” falls within engaging “national partners” to support the most vulnerable communities—not refugees alone. She believes that the continued funding crisis will lead to cuts in some basic services and support programs, increasing the fragility of refugees’ conditions and also affecting host communities.
She added that Egypt is one of the main host countries for refugees and continues to grant them access to health and education services through national systems, describing this as a “major commitment” amid internal economic pressures.
From Mehran’s perspective, reducing societal tension against refugees begins with the international community assuming its real share in funding the refugee file, rather than leaving the burden solely on host countries. At the same time, he stressed the need to ensure adequate protection for refugees while taking into account the rights of Egyptian citizens and their legitimate development priorities.
Despite the harsh conditions, returning to Sudan does not appear to be a realistic option for Mahasin and others like her. Although Egypt provides free trains from Cairo to the Sudanese border, Mahasin says that returning requires other expenses she cannot afford, in addition to the fact that the war and the destruction it has caused leave her with no safe place to return to.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
