UN publishes positive opinion survey as more and more Sudanese flee to Egypt

This Thursday, June 20, is International Refugee Day and on this occasion the UN is publishing reassuring figures from an opinion survey on the subject. But the situation is not getting better everywhere, the Sudanese continue to flee to Egypt because of the civil war.

On the occasion of International Refugee Day, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is publishing a survey on migration. Figures indicate that for three-quarters of the world’s population, it is completely normal to seek refuge abroad in the event of war or persecution. Among the forgotten wars, Sudan is experiencing one of the major crises of recent years. Since April 15, 2023 and the start of the civil war, more than 6 million Sudanese have been displaced within the country and 1.5 million have fled abroad. Neighboring Egypt welcomed more than 500,000 of them, but very quickly, Cairo tightened its entry conditions.

Egypt and its reception difficulties

After the start of the conflict in Sudan, Egypt opened its doors to its sister country, but faced with the massive arrival of refugees, the country reneged on its bilateral agreements. The latter allowed the Sudanese to go to their neighbor as they wished, but in June 2023, Cairo made an about-face.

The Sudanese are now forced to apply for a visa to flee the fighting. To do this, they must go to the Egyptian consulate in Port Sudan, the last stronghold of General Buhran’s regular army. The cost of the visa is $1,500 for one person, so attempts to cross the border illegally are increasing.

This is the case of Ahmed, who had to spend several days in the desert with his wife and four children before being rescued. “We got lost for three days, without food, without water, without anything at all, he explains. We walked 10 kilometers and we were hungry and thirsty. We really thought we were going to die.”

Once you arrive there, it’s a new obstacle course to register as an asylum seeker. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees is completely overwhelmed, with more than 2,000 Sudanese arriving at the registration office every day after at least four months of waiting.

They cannot officially work and they are victims of the increase in rent prices practiced by Egyptian landlords. It is not uncommon for a Sudanese to pay a third more than an Egyptian for their accommodation. On top of that, thousands of them are being expelled by the Egyptian authorities, against all forms of international law. The human rights NGO Amnesty International has just published a report accusing Cairo of these practices of imprisonment and expulsion to a country at war.

Positive figures towards refugees

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees carried out an opinion survey with the IPSOS institute on the refugee issue. They interviewed 33,000 people in around fifty countries, which makes it very comprehensive. The main conclusion is that despite international tensions and the rise of populist and xenophobic discourses, the figure of the refugee still arouses empathy.

“We hear about walls, closed borders, deportations, outsourcing the asylum application to third countries, but the reality is that most people are reasonable and pragmatic, explains Dominic Hyde, from the High Commission. They know that in other circumstances, they might be the ones to flee.”

Support for refugees is particularly strong in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, where a third of respondents say they have made donations to associations or relayed messages of support on social networks.

The figures still show a form of skepticism towards refugees, particularly in Europe where 39% of respondents believe that refugees will succeed in integrating into their country. 51% think so in North America and 66% in Africa. 37% of Europeans also think that refugees represent a contribution to their country, whether for the job market, for the economy and for cultural life.

There are great disparities within Europe itself, between Hungary, which is very reluctant to allow migrants to settle, and Sweden and Ireland, which are much more tolerant. France is in the low average, but what emerges above all from this survey is the monumental gap between the countries of the North where the migration issue, often exploited, can give rise to a movement of rejection, and the so-called countries of the South.

In Uganda, the largest host country in Africa, 73% of the population believe that refugees have a positive impact on their country. This example should not be idealized, but it serves as a reminder that the refugee issue is above all a question of poor or developing countries, because they are the ones that host three-quarters of all refugees in the world.