Egypt Issues - 2021

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Disputes - international

Sudan claims but Egypt de facto administers security and economic development of Halaib region north of the 22nd parallel boundary; Egypt no longer shows its administration of the Bir Tawil trapezoid in Sudan on its maps; Gazan breaches in the security wall with Egypt in January 2008 highlight difficulties in monitoring the Sinai border; Saudi Arabia claims Egyptian-administered islands of Tiran and Sanafir

Refugees and internally displaced persons

refugees (country of origin): 70,010 (West Bank and Gaza Strip) (2019); 132,748 (Syria) (refugees), 49,249 (Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 19,805 (South Sudan) (refugees and asylum seekers), 19,079 (Eritrea) (refugees and asylum seekers), 16,099 (Ethiopia) (refugees and asylum seekers), 9,267 (Yemen) (refugees and asylum seekers), 6,806 (Iraq) (refugees and asylum seekers), 6,730 (Somalia) (refugees and asylum seekers) (2021)

stateless persons: 10 (2020)

Trafficking in persons

current situation: Egypt is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor; Egyptian children, including the large population of street children are vulnerable to forced labor in domestic service, begging and agriculture or may be victims of sex trafficking or child sex tourism, which occurs in Cairo, Alexandria, and Luxor; some Egyptian women and girls are sold into "temporary" or "summer" marriages with Gulf men, through the complicity of their parents or marriage brokers, and are exploited for prostitution or forced labor; Egyptian men are subject to forced labor in neighboring countries, while adults from South and Southeast Asia and East Africa – and increasingly Syrian refugees – are forced to work in domestic service, construction, cleaning, and begging in Egypt; women and girls, including migrants and refugees, from Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East are sex trafficked in Egypt; the Egyptian military cracked down on criminal group’s smuggling, abducting, trafficking, and extorting African migrants in the Sinai Peninsula, but the practice has reemerged along Egypt’s western border with Libya

tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List – Egypt does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so; the government gathered data nationwide on trafficking cases to better allocate and prioritize anti-trafficking efforts, but overall it did not demonstrate increased progress; prosecutions increased in 2014, but no offenders were convicted for the second consecutive year; fewer trafficking victims were identified in 2014, which represents a significant and ongoing decrease from the previous two reporting periods; the government relied on NGOs and international organizations to identify and refer victims to protective services, and focused on Egyptian victims and refused to provide some services to foreign victims, at times including shelter (2015)

Illicit drugs

transit point for cannabis, heroin, and opium moving to Europe, Israel, and North Africa; transit stop for Nigerian drug couriers; concern as money laundering site due to lax enforcement of financial regulations

NOTE: The information regarding Egypt on this page is re-published from the 2021 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Egypt 2021 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Egypt 2021 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.