The invisible Palestinians
of Egypt Refugees face discrimination, poverty and no access to basic services
Oroub El Abed
18 August 2003,
Daily Star (Beirut)
- Opinion Section
The invisible Palestinians
of Egypt Refugees face discrimination, poverty and no access to basic services
Palestinians in Egypt have been living for the last 25 five years without any
international or national assistance or protection. Very little is known about
their status, especially that there are no refugee camps hosting them. The Palestinians
as refugees in Egypt and their living situation has not been a matter of concern
in most of the literature, neither for the PLO nor for people in Egypt as an
issue to draw attention to. To fill this gap, for the last two years I have
conducted research on the Palestinians and their condition and livelihoods in
Egypt. Along with searching literature about what has been written about those
"forgotten Palestinians," we also conducted a qualitative field study to collect
vivid experiences from Palestinians in Egypt about their daily struggles as
refugees.
Palestinians in Egypt were estimated to be about 53,000 by the end of 2000,
according to the ambassador of Palestine to Egypt, Zuhdi al-Qudweh. Two main
reasons brought Palestinians to Egypt over the years. First, the two Palestinian-Israeli
wars of 1948 and 1967 brought Palestinians en masse to Egypt. They were put
in temporary camps in Egypt before being asked to either leave to Gaza -- when
possible -- or to settle in Egypt.
Second, socio-economic reasons, especially after Egypt administered the Gaza
Strip as of 1949, brought many Palestinians, mainly from Gaza, to work and to
be educated in Egypt. With time, and due to the 1967 war, they were unable to
return to Gaza and had to remain. Except for the unions supported by the PLO,
Palestinians are not seen as a community in the areas in which they live in
Egypt. They are dispersed in small numbers and assimilated in the main urban
governorates in Egypt, such as Cairo, Alexandria, Ismailieh, Port Said, Shariqieh
Qualyibieh, Rafah and Ariesh.
Until 1978, Palestinians in Egypt were treated on a par with nationals. They
were able to acquire education, even university degrees, secure employment ?
even in the government ? and own property and land. Egypt's Palestinians made
up a good percentage of those working in the Gulf during the 1960s and 1970s,
because of their high qualifications. During this period, Palestinians were
known as highly educated professionals; they worked in medicine, commerce, engineering,
teaching and management.
The Camp David peace accords and the killing of Youssef al-Sibai in 1978 by
a Palestinian faction group of Abu Nidal al-Banna had a negative impact on Egyptian
policy toward Palestinians in Egypt, with newspapers in this country orchestrating
negative images. For example, some accused Palestinians of "ingratitude," of
being responsible for their own situation by "selling their land," and referring
to them as the "economic Palestinian monsters" devouring the Egyptian economy.
Laws and regulations were amended to treat Palestinians as foreigners. Their
rights to free education, employment and even residency were taken away from
them. University education now has to be paid for in foreign currency. For example,
from 1965-1978, Palestinian students studying at universities had numbered 20,000,
but by 1985 the number had dropped to 4,500. Those enrolled in public universities
between the years 1997-1998 and 2000-2001 were 3,048. Those who had established
themselves earlier in the public and the private sector were able to remain
in their positions. Government employees or professionals, such as doctors and
lawyers, kept their posts. No new Palestinians were hired by the state, however.
With access to government jobs gone, they are left with the private sector and
the informal economy. The private sector requires skills, which, without education,
Palestinians are unable to obtain. It also requires work permits, and in Egypt
the number of "foreigners" may not exceed 10 percent of the work force. Palestinians
are forced to find work in such sectors as driving trucks and taxis for others,
bicycle repair shops, petty trade in commodities such as used clothing on the
street, and 'suitcase merchants' who take items from various parts of Egypt
to sell in Gaza ? but now even this trade has stopped because of the intifada.
According to the field interviews with Palestinians dispersed in squatter areas
in Cairo, Sharqieh and Qualiubieh governorates, many of the Palestinians are
living far below the poverty line, since their income from informal sector opportunities
is very unstable.
The situation is better for the employees of the PLO, the Palestine Liberation
Army and current and former Egyptian government employees. They are ensured
regular income, and, later, a regular pension. In addition to the education
of their children, they are exempted from 90 percent of university fees.
Renewal of Palestinian residency permits in Egypt is conditional on paying a
fee and proving they have a reason to be here ? even though none of them can
go back to Palestine. Each must provide evidence of attending a school or university,
legal employment (a work contract), a business partnership with an Egyptian,
or marriage with an Egyptian woman, to mention a few. Lacking any of these,
they must have a bank statement showing they have $5000. As consequence there
are many Palestinians living illegally without residency in Egypt, and they
all risk being jailed or deported.
All Palestinians in Egypt have travel documents on which their residency permits
are stamped. Travel is also conditional; being out of the country more than
six months invalidates the residency in Egypt. If they want to stay longer,
they must apply for a re-entry permit which requires proof of a work permit
or student status elsewhere, and they can only remain out of Egypt for one year
at the most. Palestinians who return late are not permitted to enter. Recently,
such a case reported in the Al-Hayat Newspaper in November 2002 involved a student
in Moscow who spent 14 months between the airports of Egypt and Russia. Eventually,
the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) helped
him get asylum in Sweden.
Who protects the rights of Palestinians in Egypt? UNHCR is expected to protect
Palestinians who are outside UNRWA's areas of operation. However, due to an
Arab political decision, UNHCR has been hampered in protecting Palestinians.
The Arab League feared that Palestinians, if protected by UNHCR, would lose
their identity, and their cause would be diluted, particularly if UNHCR "resettled"
them to other countries.
As for national protection, Egypt and other Arab countries committed to grant
Palestinian refugees residence, and the right to work and travel, on the same
footing as their own citizens, when it signed the 1965 Arab League Casablanca
Protocol. From 1978, this commitment has not been upheld.
The general perception in the region has been that Palestinians in Egypt have
been treated like citizens. In fact, as our research has shown, they have been
invisible people of sorts, eeking out their living without the attention of
the international community.
Oroub El Abed, research associate at the Forced
Migration Refugee Studies Program at the American University in Cairo (www.aucegypt.edu/fmrs),
wrote this briefing for THE DAILY STAR. She can be contacted at oroub@aucegypt.edu.
© 2003 Palestinian Development Research
Net (PRRN)
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