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Egypt: Call for Egypt to Halt Expulsion of Sudanese Journalists

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Aswan — International journalism and press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders has appealed to the authorities in Egypt halt the imminent deportation of four Sudanese journalists who were arrested in September, and are being held in a refugee centre in Aswan, on the border between Egypt and Sudan. The group calls on Egypt to release them, and guarantee their protection.

In a statement this week, Reporters Without Borders points out that Sudan is a dangerous zone for journalists, and that the four Sudanese journalists, who they do not name, would face grave danger and reprisals if returned to Sudan. The organisation says that the group was arrested on 23 September while recording an interview with Mohamed Hassan Bouchi, a Sudanese human rights defender exiled in Egypt, for the Sudanese TV channel Sudan Bukra.

The journalists, who hold temporary asylum seeker registration cards issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), had fled their war-torn country, victims of abuses by both warring parties. With the help of their lawyers, they have battled numerous chaotic judicial and administrative procedures since their arrest, oscillating between the threat of deportation to Sudan and the hope of finding refuge in a safer country, such as Uganda, the advocacy group says.

Yet the hope of refuge was extinguished on 22 October, when the journalists were placed in a military prison in the city of Aswan to facilitate their deportation by land, according to their lawyer Iqbal Ahmed Ali. “The persistence of the concerned parties acting against these journalists is surprising, to the point that we are beginning to fear that their status as journalists is being used against them. After nearly a month in detention, what we are seeing is a lack of coordination between the UNHCR and the Egyptian authorities,” she says.