Human rights activist Nour Khalil, director of the Refugees Platform in Egypt (RPE), said security forces surrounded his family’s home in Gharbiya governorate for hours Wednesday, attempting to arrest his brother in what he described as retaliation for his rights work abroad.
By evening, after speaking with his family, Khalil reported his brother had not been at home at the time of the security ambush and was spared. By the time Nour contacted his family, security forces had left and his family was physically fine. However, Nour added, they described a severe psychological toll, especially on the children of the family, who had been there to celebrate Eid.
Khalil, who lives in Italy, told Al Manassa that his family put him on the phone with officers involved in the operation, who said, “We’re not leaving until we take him,” confirming, he said, that the move against his brother and family was meant to pressure him.
UN Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders Mary Lawlor described the reports as “disturbing.” In a Facebook post, she added, “This appears to be in retaliation for Nour’s advocacy on behalf of migrants’ rights in Egypt,” noting that “Nour himself was forced to leave Egypt a number of years ago because of escalating threats he faced due to his work.”
The Refugees Platform director said attempts to target his brother began early Wednesday, when police, claiming to belong to the “electricity investigations” unit, photographed the house, before National Security officers later identified themselves and insisted on arresting Islam.
The security move came just hours after a Facebook post by Khalil in which he sharply criticized the policies of the Ministry of Interior and the Prosecutor General toward migrants and refugees in Egypt, saying, “The arrest and detention campaigns against refugees and migrants in Egypt have not slowed during Ramadan, or even over Eid, and are escalating by the day.”
In the post, Khalil held both the minister of interior and the Prosecutor General “responsible for the violations refugees are facing,” calling for an investigation into the conditions under which migrant and refugee children, women, and elderly people are being held. He also criticized the practice of “case rotation” affecting those who had received release orders from the Public Prosecution.
Khalil described the situation of refugees in Egypt as a “farce” that must end, saying detained refugees and migrants are being denied contact with their families or lawyers and are being left with two choices: “prolonged detention and then deportation by land, or buying a ticket and being deported before meeting the fate of those who lost their lives in prisons.”
Islam was previously arrested on May 24, 2015, before being released in August 2016, and was arrested again on March 10, 2018.
Last February, a rights report issued by the Egyptian Forum for Human Rights criticized what it described as “violations faced by Egyptian human rights and political activists abroad, including threats against their families inside the country.”
According to the report, a qualitative survey conducted by the forum found that 72% of respondents in a poll of 34 activists and rights defenders in exile said members of their families inside Egypt had been subjected to security raids, summonses, or travel bans “in retaliatory measures aimed at pressuring their relatives abroad.”
