The Egyptian government called on “more than 9 million immigrants and refugees” in the country to register their places of residence, as part of procedures it began to audit the number of refugees it has and “the cost of the services the state bears to care for them,” without specifying a time frame for announcing the results.

In a meeting of the Egyptian Council of Ministers headed by Mostafa Madbouly, with ministers and local officials, the Ministry of Interior called on, in a statement to the government, all those present in Egypt to “begin taking procedures to prove their residency, starting from the first of January 2024.”< /p>

This is the first measure of its kind taken by the Egyptian government in years, especially with the escalation of the influx of refugees into Egypt and the outbreak of political crises and armed confrontations in Arab countries, including Syria and Yemen, and finally Sudan and Gaza.

The Prime Minister explained at the beginning of the meeting that “today’s meeting aims to follow up on the contributions the Egyptian state bears in exchange for caring for its refugee guests of various nationalities, whose numbers, according to some international estimates, reach more than 9 million guests.”

Madbouly stressed “the importance of auditing these numbers, and determining what the state bears in exchange for the services provided in various sectors to Egypt’s guests, who receive them in the best way, just like Egyptians.”

Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said, “There are about 9 million immigrants and refugees living in Egypt from about 133 countries, with a ratio of 50.4% males and 49.6% females, with an average age of 35 years, representing 8.7% of the size of Egypt’s population.” .

The minister referred to “what was stated in the report of the International Organization for Migration in August 2023, which confirmed that migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt have access to education and health services, on an equal basis with Egyptians, despite the challenges these two sectors face and the high economic costs.” .

For his part, Minister of Labor Hassan Shehata said that the numbers of those who obtained official work permits are “very small and not commensurate with the announced numbers.”

Minister of Local Development, Hisham Amna, confirmed that there is “monitoring of the concentrations and numbers of refugees in various governorates, the job opportunities in which they work, and the services they enjoy.”

In recent days, a hashtag has circulated on social media calling for a boycott of famous restaurants owned by refugees in Egypt, and to go to their Egyptian counterparts out of concern for the country’s economy, which is facing an “inflationary crisis resulting from global crises,” according to official statements and international estimates.