‘Egypt should end persecution of critics, open dialogue’, says HRW

HRW says if Egypt’s Sisi is serious about inclusivity of the dialogue he had called for, he should show good faith by instructing his authorities to halt the targeting of critics abroad.

Human Rights Watch has called on Egyptian authorities to end persecution of regime critics and open dialogue to include all Egyptian political spectra.

Amr Magdi, HRW’s senior researcher in the Middle East and North Africa division, tackled in a recent piece titled, ‘Exile or prison: Egypt’s offer to critics abroad’, the persecution by the Egyptian authorities of Egyptian opponents living abroad, including ‘refusing to provide identity documents including passports, birth certificates, and national IDs to them’.

“Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch released a report exposing how Egyptian authorities are refusing to provide identity documents including passports, birth certificates, and national IDs to critics living abroad,” Magdi says, adding:

“The goal appears to be to disrupt their lives so much that they have to choose between effectively becoming undocumented or returning to Egypt, where they could face jail time, even torture,” he says, continuing:

Following the report, Egyptian critics living in the United Kingdom and Qatar have approached me to say they have suffered similar abuses.

One of the pernicious details we uncovered in our report is how some foreign missions, including the Egyptian Consulate in Istanbul, require citizens accessing services to provide extensive, unnecessary details such as their reason for leaving Egypt and links to social to their media accounts. The forms are then sent directly to security agencies in Egypt who approve or deny access to these services.

“If Al-Sisi is serious about the inclusivity of this dialogue, he should show good faith by instructing his authorities to halt the targeting of critics abroad and by releasing the thousands of people who are unjustly detained.”

“If he can do this, people may feel safe enough to return and to take part in genuine dialogue that isn’t state-managed, talking to each other in the streets, cafes, the markets, schools, universities, and in the media,” Magdi concluded.