Solidarity minister says refugees treated as citizens in Egypt

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt - 7 November 2017: Egypt has done the best it could to host and merge refugees, who are being treated as citizens of this country and receiving all health and educational services, the minister of social solidarity has said.

Addressing a session on Egypt's experiment in hosting refugees, which was held Tuesday as part of the International Youth Forum in Sharm el Sheikh, Ghada Wali said: "The government did not isolate the refugees in camps as is the case in some other countries."

Their movement is not monitored or restricted, she told the gathering.

Egypt is now home to refugees from 59 countries, the minister said, adding they are living in the different Egyptian governorates.

According to her, this sends a clear message about how open the Egyptian society is to the idea of co-existing with refugees.

Some 40,000 Syrian students are enrolled in Egyptian schools, Wali said, believing this is the highest record in this respect.

She touched upon what she called "close cooperation" with the different UN agencies concerned with helping the refugees.

Wali also talked about a national plan of action to curb the influx of illegal migration. She told the session a law to counter illegal migration was endorsed in 2016.