Refugees, internally displaced Africans ‘top priority’ for Egypt

CAIRO - 21 October 2019: Finding sustainable solutions to refugees and internally displaced Africans is a top priority on Egypt’s continental agenda, said a Monday statement by the Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Hafez.

The statement comes on the occasion of the commemoration of the African Human Rights Day, on October 21st of each year, in order to affirm Egypt’s attention to the issues of refugees, returnees and internally displaced persons in Africa.

According to the statement, Ahmed Hafez said Egypt opens its doors to “ to all our fellow nationals of countries which witness crises or conflicts.”

Egypt is the host country of many refugees and acts to merge them into the Egyptian society without discrimination, Hafez stressed.

Hafez added that “Egypt recognizes that serious engagement with this file represents a top continental priority in order to find sustainable solutions to these issues, that would address their root causes and not only their effects, especially in light of their wide-scale social, economic and security implications on the African peoples, whether in the home, host, or transit countries.”

In this regard, he stressed that addressing this question requires a comprehensive approach, entailing peacekeeping and peace-building, and creating the conditions conducive to the safe return of the displaced persons in such a manner that ensures their assimilation and reintegration into their communities, and providing them with basic services, in preservation of their human dignity. This end cannot be achieved without silencing the guns and the pursuit of comprehensive development, by an exclusive African leadership and ownership of conflict-settlement and sustainable peace-building efforts, to be fully supported by the international community.

The MFA Spokesperson outlined that Egypt believes in the enormous potential of the peoples of the African continent, which qualifies them to assume a standing at the forefront of nations, noting that the stimulation of African peoples’ will, along with concerted efforts of the African governments would change the stereotypical image of the continent as a place of conflicts in which the displaced and refugees suffer, to a stage of development and prosperity.