|Published on: 3rd July 2025|Categories: News|
- The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has issued an urgent appeal for increased international funding to support the rising number of refugees in Egypt.
- European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration has confirmed that he will be travelling to Libya for talks with the country’s authorities despite describing them as ‘a bit dodgy’.
- A court in Türkiye has sentenced four border guards to life imprisonment for their involvement in the death and torture of two people on the move.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has issued an urgent appeal for increased international funding to support the rising number of refugees in Egypt. In a press release issued on 30 June, UNHCR estimated that 1.5 million Sudanese nationals have arrived in Egypt since the start of the conflict in their home country in April 2023, and that they currently account for 73% of the people registered with it in Egypt. Despite this, the agency has also warned that a significant decrease in international funding has forced it to cut its essential assistance services for thousands of people in need. It has reported that it is currently operating with less than a third of its required budget and that it is facing a US$97 million funding gap. Commenting on the situation, Mahmoud Shalaby from Amnesty International told the Zawia3 journalism organisation that UNHCR Egypt’s funding crisis would “deepen refugees’ daily suffering and push thousands of families into extreme poverty.” “Refugees in Egypt already face severe economic pressure, struggling to afford necessities such as food, shelter, healthcare, and education. Now, with the UNHCR reducing cash support, these necessities are more threatened than ever,” he said. UNHCR has called on donor countries, humanitarian organisations and the private sector to “strengthen their support and ensure to help those forced to flee rebuild their lives with dignity and hope”.
The European Commission president has informed EU leaders that the commissioner for home and affairs will be travelling to Libya in order to engage with various authorities on the issue of migration. In a letter addressed to all members of the European Council in advance of their summit on 26 June, Ursula von der Leyen wrote that departures from Libya accounted for “93% of illegal border crossings” and that it was “essential to work with [authorities in the West and East of the country], in a Team Europe approach, to be able to insist on strengthening border management and the fight against migrant smuggling, managing work visas and onward movements to the EU, as well as ensuring protection and voluntary returns from Libya to countries of origin”. The commissioner in question, Magnus Brunner, has stated that the EU has to engage with Libyan authorities despite their well-reported human rights violations. Speaking at an event in Brussels on 26 June, Brunner acknowledged concerns about working with what he called “dodgy” Libyan authorities whom he accused of pushing people onto boats. However, he also insisted that the EU had to “get involved”. According to journalist Nikolaj Nielsen who reported on the event, “Brunner’s open acknowledgment that Libyan officials are forcing people to take the dangerous journey, while at the same time promising to shore up further support for them, exposes wider inherent contradictions of the EU’s approach to stemming migration in the country and elsewhere”.
A court in Türkiye has sentenced four border guards to life imprisonment for their involvement in the death and torture of two people on the move. According to the Agence France Presse news agency, seven other border guards also received prison sentences of up to seven and a half years for “intentional injuries” and “destroying and hiding evidence” in the incident in which two Syrians died close to the Türkiye-Syria border in March 2023. The victims were part of a group of people who were detained by authorities in Hatay province as they tried to enter Türkiye irregularly. The other members of the group were reportedly returned to Syria where they were hospitalised.
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