Sudanese turn to smugglers to cross border into Egypt

Egypt has severely restricted legal routes of entry from Sudan since the war began there, leaving refugees to pay smugglers with police connections to get them across the border.

It took Iman Ali, her two children and her parents three nights to cross the border from Sudan, their war-torn homeland, into Egypt. Guided by smugglers, the family travelled along remote paths in a Toyota Hilux pickup, reaching the southern Egyptian city of Aswan after navigating many obstacles. “When we got to Aswan my parents were sick and my two children were dehydrated, because we had been sitting under the hot desert sun in the Hilux we rented,” the 35-year-old, now living in the Faisal neighbourhood of Cairo, told Middle East Eye. The guides who took the family helped keep them away from Egyptian police, she said. “I have a feeling they are an illegal network made up of Sudanese and Egyptian traders who have ties with the police in both countries,” Iman said. Working as an engineer in Sudan before the war erupted, Iman and her family are among thousands of Sudanese who have been forced to resort to illegal smugglers to cross the border into Egypt’s Aswan province.
Despite freedom of movement, residence, work and property ownership being guaranteed by a 2004 agreement between the two countries, Egyptian authorities have imposed widespread restrictions on Sudanese entering Egypt, including people over 50 and children/under 18s. These restrictions were put in place following the eruption of the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary in April last year. According to the UN, over 1.6 million people have crossed the borders of Sudan into neighbouring countries since then. Around 450,000 of those have gone to Egypt, joining some four million Sudanese already living there.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sudan-egypt-border-migration-smugglers-police

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