Escaping the Escape

Toward Solutions for the Humanitarian Migration Crisis

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• Publisher: Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9783867937498
• eBook ISBN: 9783867937818
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Comparative Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Conflict and war, but most of all overwhelming despair are driving massive numbers of mostly young people from the Middle East and North Africa, Central Africa, the Balkan, Ukraine and Central Asia to leave their homes for Europe in search of safety. What do they need most in order to lead their lives in peace and security? How can opportunities for a meaningful and secure future in their countries of origin be improved? How can the EU – acting in concert with its principles – support these people in their search for freedom, self-determination and well-being? These are the questions addressed in "Escaping the Escape." The publication features authors from refugee-source countries and experts from Europe who examine the situation in the crisis regions and offer concrete recommendations for actions to be taken in each region.Countries and regions covered in this publication are: Afghanistan, Algeria and Sahel, the Balkans, Egypt, Eritrea, Gaza, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Yemen.

Human Mobility in the Euro-Mediterranean Region: The Case of Egypt

Ayman Zohry, Khaled Hassan

Basic facts	Egypt
Capital	Cairo
Demographics
Population	91.51 million
Annual population growth rate	2.1 %
Net migration rate (2016 est.)	-0.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population
Top destination countries (2013)	Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, the United States of America, Qatar, Italy, Lebanon, Bahrain, Canada
Top source countries (2013)	Syria, West Bank and Gaza, Somalia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Republic of Yemen, Libya, Jordan, Sudan, Indonesia
Ethnic groups	Egyptian 99.6 %, other 0.4 % (2006)
Languages	Arabic (official), English and French widely understood by educated classes
Religions and beliefs	Muslim (predominantly Sunni) 90 %, Christian (majority Coptic Orthodox, other Christians include Armenian Apostolic, Catholic, Maronite, Orthodox and Anglican) 10 % (2012 est.)
Median age (2016 est.)	23.8 years
Economy and employment
GDP, PPP / GDP per capita, PPP	$ 996.638 billion / $ 10,891.3
GDP growth rate	4.2 %
GNI, PPP / GNI per capita, PPP	$ 978.332 billion / $ 10,690
Inflation rate (consumer prices)	10.4 %
Unemployment (%) (2014)	13.2 % (2014)
Youth (15-24 years) unemployment (2014)	42 % (2014)
FDI inflows	$ 6.885 billion
Imports of goods and services	$ 73.675 billion (2014)
Exports of goods and services	$ 47.101 billion (2014)
Remittances inward flow	$ 20.391 billion
Political transformation (BTI 2016)	3.93 (rank 91 out of 129 countries)
Economic transformation (BTI 2016)	4.86 (rank 83 out of 129 countries)

Note: All figures for 2015 unless otherwise specified. Sources (in alphabetical order): Bertelsmann Transformation Index BTI, CIA World Factbook, Eurostat, UNCTAD, UN Data, World Bank (for details, see “A Note from the Editors”).

Since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in March 2011, more than 100,000 Syrian refugees have arrived in Egypt, posing a variety of challenges to the country. In addition, growing numbers of people from countries such as Sudan have also arrived in Egypt, prompting an urgent need to limit and monitor the flows of irregular migration into the country.

Reasons for flight: Policy failures, conflicts and war

Although the refugee crisis has evolved at a speed making it increasingly difficult to procure timely and comprehensive statistics, an attempt to quantify the situation is given below.

1. Syrian refugees in Egypt

Egypt is neither a direct neighbor to Syria nor a major regional destination for Syrian refugees. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there were 117,702 registered Syrian refugees, or about 41,000 households, in Egypt as of 31 May 2016 (UNHCR 2016a). As this figure reflects only registered refugees, Egypt’s total population of resident Syrians may be larger. This population of registered refugees comprises just 2.43 percent of the total number of Syrian refugees worldwide.

An examination of changes in the Syrian refugee population in Egypt shows a trend of significant increase, from fewer than 1,000 individuals in July 2012 to more than 138,000 in January 2015. However, as shown in Table 1 and Figure 1 below, the total number of Syrian refugees in Egypt subsequently decreased to about 118,000 in January 2016. This suggests that about 20,000 Syrian refugees presumably either left the country or otherwise fell off the registration rolls in 2015.

Table 1: Registered Syrian refugees in Egypt, 2012–2016

Date	Number of registered refugees	Absolute change
July 2012	924	---
Jan 2013	13,001	12,077
July 2013	88,960	75,959
Jan 2014	131,599	42,639
July 2014	138,159	6,560
Jan 2015	138,212	53
July 2015	132,375	-5,837
Jan 2016	117,658	-14,717
June 2016	117,702	44

Source: UNHCR 2016a

Figure 1: Registered Syrian refugees in Egypt, 2012–2016 (in thousands)

Source: UNHCR 2016a

Government figures on Syrians in Egypt differ from UNHCR statistics. In January 2016, Egypt’s minister of foreign affairs claimed that the country was hosting 300,000 Syrians.

2. Other refugee populations in Egypt

Although Syrians comprise the vast majority of refugees in Egypt, the country also hosts more than 60,000 refugees of other nationalities. Again, as these figures reflect only registered refugees, the total number of residents holding foreign citizenship may be larger. Sudanese citizens, who constitute the largest single-country share within this group, do not need a visa to enter Egypt and are guaranteed the freedoms of movement, residence, work and property by the Four Freedoms Agreemen...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Titel
• Impressum
• Inhalt
• Foreword
• Preface
• A Note from the Editors
• On the Far Side of Crisis: Moving Beyond a Security-Based Migration Approach in the EU
• Greece: Both A Transit and Host Country
• The Balkans as Europe’s Blind Spot: A Transit Route and Migrant-Origin Area
• Migration, Refugees and Internal Displacement in Ukraine
• Turkey as a Refugee Transit and Host Country
• Afghanistan: Current Migration Patterns and Policy Challenges
• Iran and the Immigration Crisis: Examining the Causes and Consequences of Afghan Immigration
• Emigration from Iraq: Who Wants to Leave and Why?
• The Syrian Crisis and Flow of the Syrian Refugees
• On the Situation of Syrian Refugees in Jordan and Lebanon
• Human Mobility in the Euro-Mediterranean Region: The Case of Egypt
• The Gaza Strip: Reversing the Desire to Flee
• The Refugee Crisis and Yemen: Prospects for and Conditions of Improvement
• Irregular Somali Immigration to the EU: Causes and Remedies
• Eritrea – National Service, Forced Labor and Mass Exodus: Is There a Way Out?
• More Effective Options in Addressing Irregular Sudanese and South Sudanese Migration to Europe
• A Look Deep Inside Nigeria’s Migration Conundrums
• Irregular Migration in Libya: Analysis, Facts and Recommendations
• Migration Flows from Tunisia: Analysis of Socioeconomic Causes in the Post-Revolutionary Period
• Migration and Refugees in Algeria and the Sahel: Targeting a Win-Win Neighborhood Policy in the Mediterranean
• Morocco as an Origin, Transit and Host Country for Migrants
• Escaping the Escape – A Résumé
• The Authors
• Migration routes to Europe and within Africa
• Political transformation
• Selected demographics data: share of persons older than 65 years, youth unemployment