Palestinians struggle for recognition, threatened in Egypt

Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. © Hani Naim - IBTimes

You can listen to sources quoted in this article speaking in this audio clip (in Arabic). 

By: Reem Gehad

“The employee [at the Egyptian passport authority] took my [Palestinian refugee] travel document and told me ‘this is not a passport, do not say that this is a passport’ and he threw it on the desk,” Nadia Khalifa, a 53-year-old Palestinian woman said.

Denied a homeland and forced to live for decades in often disadvantaged “refugee camps” in neighboring Arab countries, Palestinians coming from war-stricken Syria are faced with a new identity hardship in Egypt.

Khalifa came on her own to Egypt in July 2012 when Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s planes bombarded her street in the Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, which has been home to over 100 thousand Palestinian refugees since 1957.

"They're saying the ambassador will come out to talk to us, I'll wait, you won't bear the heat, but I will – after all why not?" Khalifa told young girls when they asked her to go home with them. They had been standing in a protest in front of the Palestinian Embassy in Dokki, Giza, for the second time demanding it interferes to help them legally stay in Egypt.

Like most Palestinian-Syrians who arrived in Egypt since the outbreak of the 2011 Syrian conflict, Khalifa went to the Egyptian interior ministry’s Passport, Immigration & Nationality Authority (PINA) to gain a residency permit.

“After four months of visiting the office, they rejected my application,” she said.

About ten thousand Palestinian-Syrians arrived in Egypt since the start of the conflict in Syria, most of them coming from the Yarmouk Camp. They hold a “Palestinian refugee travel document” that is issued by the Syrian government.

Those who are not granted a residency permit in Egypt are faced with the threat to be deported at any time back to Syria. In addition, they stay in Egypt without work or access to basic services.

“Those with families, especially children who go to school, are usually granted a few-months permit,” said Abd El-Jabbar Bilal, a 42-year-old Palestinian lawyer who left Syria to Egypt last October.

“However, they are still not granted the right to work,” he explained, “I came with my wife and six children and received a six-months permit to stay, but I cannot work and my savings are about to end and when they do – how am I going to feed my family?”

“Despite that, however, it seems there isn't a clear policy on why a Palestinian is given the permit and for how long,” Bilal explained.

While he received a permit for six-months, others in a similar situation would gain a permit for a longer or shorter period of time. The process may also differ as some may wait for a long time to receive their acceptance.

“But if you do not have school children you do not have the right to stay at all,” he said.

Old men and women, young people who fled the country for being wanted by the Syrian regime – they are all denied the right to stay.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) does not offer much help either as they are prevented by Egypt’s foreign ministry to register Palestinian refugees.

This isn’t the case for their Syrian counterparts who can be legally registered with the UNHCR, granting them protection from deportation and providing them with aid. In addition, Egypt issued a presidential decree last September granting various rights to Syrian refugees, including access to government schools. However, all this legislation and rights do not apply to the Palestinians who fled Syria.

“[The office] was instructed by the Egyptian ministry of foreign affairs not to register Palestinian-Syrians,” a public information officer at the UNHCR, who refused to disclose their name, said.

The main organization that should be involved in dealing with Palestinian refugees in Egypt is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees.

“Because Egypt is part of the UNRWA, we cannot really do anything more with the Palestinian refugees here,” the UNHCR representative said.

However, UNRWA only has a laision office in Cairo that does not offer much practical services to Palestinians here. To change this situation, Egypt would not to approve and a vote by the UN general assembly.  

The Palestinian-Syrian refugees blamed Palestinian Embassy in Cairo for worsening their situation, citing its “inaction” as the trigger for their protest in front of the embassy last April and again earlier in May. 

The demonstrators had called for their protest on a Facebook page titled “Do not kill us twice.” 

They put forward several demands, their first being that, “the Palestinian embassy should consider it a top priority to work with the Egyptian governmental entities and the UNHCR to solve the problems of the refugees in terms of recognition and equality with the Syrian refugees.”


The protesters also demanded that the embassy “should fulfill its duties towards the refugees in terms of providing them with medical aid, food and financial aid.”

The Palestinian embassy in Cairo released an official statement on 22 April saying that they have created a database for the refugees who fled Syria and have provided them with financial aid. However, Palestinian protesters say that this is false.

“I came with my wife last year,” Saleh Abd El-Aal said, “She suffers from diabetes and needs weekly medication. I cannot afford that anymore, and if I don’t manage she will just die.”

Abd El-Aal came from Yarmouk camp with his wife when the attack on the camp intensified.

“They bombed different parts at a time, when the fighting spread in the camp and it became more and more dangerous we had to leave,” he said.

He applied for a residency permit at PINA last January and was only granted four-months permit earlier in May.

“I had to go to the offices of National Security (El-Amn El-Watani) several times and was asked about my arrival in Egypt and what I plan to do,” he said.

Bilal explains that many Palestinian-Syrians choose Egypt as a refuge because other Arab countries constitute a different challenge for them.

“Iraq is marred by sectarian conflict for example and we know that Palestinians aren't at their best in Lebanon,” he commented, “We thought Egypt would be better.”

Yarmouk is the largest camp in Syria for Palestinians who were forced out of their lands in the 1948 Israeli occupation. It is located about eight kilometers south of Damascus’ city center.

The total number of Palestinians in Syria is estimated to be over 500 thousand people.

Palestinian-Syrians have been known to enjoy a lot of rights under Assad’s regime in Syria. Their situation is better than that of Palestinian refugees in neighboring Jordan or Lebanon. When the conflict waged in Syria, most of them decided to remain neutral. 

However, they were dragged into the strife and were forced to become part of it.  

Many displaced Syrians from the conflict had already arrived at the camp that was considered relatively safe in comparison to other places in Syria.

However, last August airplanes bombed the camp leaving at least 20 people dead, according to the United Nations.

In December, fierce fighting took place in the camp between pro-Assad Syrian Army and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (a pro-Assad group based in Yarmouk) on one hand and the Free Syrian Army and an anti-Assad Palestinian group in the camp called the Storm Brigade (Liwa Al-‘Asifa) on the other.

This has caused serious damage and has claimed many lives in the camps as a result, with thousands of its resients forced to leave it.

Concerns have been rising in Egypt over the intentions of Palestinians who arrive here, especially those coming from Gaza, amid unofficial claims that they plan to take Egypt as a home, staying here by force.

 “We used to struggle to get our [Palestinian] land back, now we are struggling to be called refugees,” Bilal said, “Is there any more humiliation than that?”