Sisi, European Council President talk combating illegal migration

CAIRO - 18 January 2019: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi received a phone call from President of European Council Donald Tusk, discussing the ways of combating the illegal migration to European countries, Egypt’s Presidential Office stated on Thursday in a statement.

“The phone call tackled a number of files and issues of mutual concern between Egypt and the European Union, a top of which is the joint cooperation on all levels and the efforts of combating the illegal migration and terrorism,” the statement read.

Tusk praised Egypt’s role in combating the illegal migration, the statement continued.

In his two-day visit to Egypt on January 13-14, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr. Filippo Grandi met with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to talk Egypt’s roles in combating the illegal migration.

“As of 31 November 2018, Egypt hosts more than 242,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers of 58 different countries including: Syria (55%), Sudan (16.9%), Ethiopia (6.51%), Eritrea (6.27%), and South Sudan (5.88%),” said the UNHCR in a statement on January 14.

In his speech with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in Vienna on December 17, 2018, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi said that Egypt has prevented a total of 11,000 refugees arrived in Egypt to migrant to Europe in 2018.

President Sisi added that his country is hosting more than five million migrants and refugees, registered and unregistered.

Both Tusk, and Austrian Chancellor Kurz, who country holds the current presidency of the EU, paid Egypt a visit in September 2018, talking with Presidents Sisi the illegal migration.