After Turkey, Libya, Tunisia… This Sunday, March 17, the European Commission is poised to enter into a highly controversial agreement with Egypt. With billions at stake.
Out of sight. To prevent migrants from setting foot on European Union soil, the Commission is preparing to forge an agreement with Egypt on Sunday, March 17, 2024. It will be the responsibility of Egypt to detain potential migrants and to repatriate its nationals who have entered Europe illegally…
Nothing is free, of course. In Cairo, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, will not arrive empty-handed. Egyptian Finance Minister, Mohamed Maait, has already mentioned a check of approximately 5 billion euros. Several sources in Brussels, however, speak of 7.4 billion euros instead.
Few departures from Egypt
A welcome windfall for this country, the most populous in the Arab world with 104 million inhabitants, which claims to host 9 million migrants. Driven into exile by conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Sudan, and Libya, not all of them dream of Europe, however. 60% of them have been residing here for about a decade, and 37% hold stable jobs, observed Population Minister, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, in mid-January. Migrant departures, which are already rare from the well-controlled Egyptian coast, tend to occur more through Libya, according to the EU Asylum Agency (EUAA).
European money also aims to support Egypt, which is drained by an economic crisis that continues to worsen: two-thirds of its inhabitants, in poverty, pay a heavy price for the pharaonic lifestyle of the marshal-president regime.
Repression continues to escalate
More than the economy being locked down by authorities, it’s their determination to trample human rights that is concerning regarding the treatment of migrants. On Tuesday, French Green MEP Mounir Satouri, rapporteur for the European Parliament on Egypt, sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen to remind her of the catastrophic situation of democracy and human rights in this country.
Egypt is ranked 135th out of 140 in the World Justice Project’s global Rule of Law Index. Since the military returned to power in 2013, repression has only increased. Initially against Islamist militants and now against any dissenting voice: the country has more than 60,000 political prisoners, according to human rights NGOs.
“How can the Commission continue to conclude agreements with dictators?”, exclaimed Pietro Bartolo (Social Democrat) in our columns last week. This Italian served as a “migrant doctor” in Lampedusa for thirty years. On this small island, the entry point for migrants into the EU, he was the first witness to the aftermath of torture and rape endured by thousands of migrants in Libyan camps, and more recently in Tunisia.
Under pressure from the far right
Libya, Turkey, Tunisia… And now Egypt. Since 2015, EU member states and the EU have multiplied migration agreements with these countries with unsavory leaders.
As a surge of the far right looms in the European elections on June 9, the right intends to further multiply measures to regain control of its borders. The European People’s Party (EPP), which includes the French Republicans and the German Ursula von der Leyen, raised eyebrows even within its ranks in early March by including in its program the fact that “anyone seeking asylum in the EU could be transferred to a safe third country.” Two years ago, the same people were outraged to see former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wanting to do the same, by repelling migrants to Rwanda…
