Egypt

South Sudan

UNHCR shut down its office doors as a result of what is known as the "Mostafa Mahmoud demonstrations" that ensued in the last three months of 2005. The south and the north of Sudan had signed a Comprehensive Peace Agreement in early 2005, following a twenty-year-long civil war. UNHCR was preparing to sign the first tripartite agreement with the governments of Sudan and Kenya to assist the return of refugees mostly residing in the Kakuma Refugee Camps in Kenya to the south of Sudan. In Egypt, however, there were no camps. Instead, UNHCR stopped RSD for the newcomers from the south of Sudan who lived autonomously in urban areas. Around 2,000 demonstrators started camping in Mostafa Mahmoud Park near the UNHCR office in the Mohandessin District in Cairo. Being unable to register with the organization meant that the new arrivals to Egypt could not access employment, healthcare, and education. Most importantly, they remained at risk of detention and deportation in the absence of UNHCR's identity documentation that confirmed their legal status as 'asylum seekers' or 'refugees' in the country. The security measures and forces around the UNHCR office were doubled, and all communication channels with the demonstrators, who were referred to as thugs or illegal migrants by office senior management during staff meetings, were eventually cut. With the temporary closure of the office, I spent my time at work, together with the rest of the staff, clearing my backlog of pending RSD decisions and updating the data in UNHCR's population database called Profile Global Registration System (proGres) using log entries such as 'Applicant scheduled for an interview,' 'Applicant interviewed,' 'Assessment submitted for review,' and so on, to process the RSD case management data for each applicant. On the last working day and the last all-staff meeting of the year in 2005, the senior management wished us all a prosperous and happy new year. At the same meeting, they announced that some protestors were likely to die, with the police being instructed to enter the park that same night. And they did die. Egyptian security opened fire on the crowd while most protestors were asleep. I spent the next month, the deadline given to UNHCR by the government, with the RSD team rotating between three Egyptian prisons to establish who among the 627 detainees were refugees and who were not (Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Programme, 2006). Ajok, one of the survivors of Mostafa Mahmoud, uttered these words to me in a prison cell as I was switching on my laptop, getting ready to type the transcript of the RSD interview: "Now I have to talk to you about what happened to me in South of Sudan so you can let me out of prison. I saw people and children die that night. Three people committed suicide since we were thrown in here like animals. One was a close friend. How are you going to interview him to determine whether or not he is a refugee now? UNHCR did not have to wait that long. People did not have to die for you to come listen to us." These words of Ajok, I did not type, but I remember them. He was not an illegal migrant. Like all the other detainees, he was eventually granted refugee status and was released from prison. The Inspector General's Office (IGO), which is responsible for the assurance and oversight of UNHCR's activities and operations, initiated an internal investigation. I was one of the many staff members that IGO interviewed, but there were never any internal or external reports issued by UNHCR. If these existed, they were not made available to all staff or the public.

Mostafa Mahmoud Incident

Malaysia

Philippines

In 2015, 10 years after my first RSD interview, with work in 6 different operations, I was no longer an entry-level caseworker in UNHCR. I was heading all country level efforts in relation to UNHCR’s statelessness mandate. I had a 7-digit budget with a specific focus on the identification and reduction of statelessness within the Indian Tamil community who were brought to West Malaysia from India and Sri Lanka to work in plantations during the British colonial rule in the 19th century. We were moving closer to getting a reliable baseline figure and acquiring nationality for the stateless populations. But things were rather complicated in Sabah, one of the two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo in East Malaysia where this Filipino refugee woman who sent an inquiry to the general e-mailing address of UNHCR was born and living 28 years of her young life. Having been born as the daughter of Pilipino Muslim refugee parents, she was living on an immigration pass she had to renew every month. She could not travel outside Malaysia. She did not speak any Filipino languages. With her dad’s passing away one month before, her mother with cancer, she was looking after her 3 siblings. In the absence of any official documentation that could prove her nationality, she could not get married to her partner. UNHCR’s public information and digital media catch all phrase that year in 2015 is “One Refugee without Hope is too Many” and she was one out of many 80,000 Pilipino refugees in Sabah without hope. Could we help? No. Pilipino refugees in Sabah were never categorized as refugees. UNHCR found the talk of local integration for Filipino Muslim refugees in Sabah too dangerous. Given the cross-border nature of these issues, there were some expressions of intentions to act, but the potential risks and resourcing consequences made it arduous to advocate for “the protection of refugees” with the government. The office did not want to make a move that would jeopardize its direct implementation work in West Malaysia with refugee populations. UNHCR’s decision to remain silent on Sabah and act to change the state behaviour was to protect its presence in the country rather than the Filipino refugees themselves. As we celebrated a landmark exercise for UNHCR’s statelessness mandate and continued access to the refugees in West Malaysia, we dropped another front line that emerged in the battle for the rights of refugees in East Malaysia. This decision of political kind in nature effectively shut off a path for this community to seek redress for the violation of their human rights as well as their protection rights as refugees. We maintained collateral relationships with the government and received extra funding the next year with all the success stories projected in the country operational planning, but did not engage in any protection activities in Sabah.

Pilipino Muslim Refugees in Sabah: Lost in Numbers

The decision of UNHCR’s office in Cairo in 2005 to categorically exclude the South Sudanese population from international protection was closely tied to the explicit and implicit preferences put forth by the host and the donor states as part of its regional involvement in the tripartite agreement with the governments of Kenya and Sudan. Questions:<ol><li>What is the total number of casualties and people who went missing during the protests?&nbsp;</li><li>How many of them were children and elderly? Which regions and districts did they come from in South Sudan?&nbsp;</li><li>How many of them had pending asylum applications with UNHCR before the demonstrations?</li><li>What was the average waiting period for the RSD interview and decision for someone from South Sudan?&nbsp;</li><li>What was the percentage of recognition rate of the applicants despite the ongoing peace process during the period leading up to the Peace Agreement?&nbsp;</li><li>What was the responsibility and accountability of UNHCR for Mostafa Mahmoud?&nbsp;</li><li>How many individuals were unable to register during the closure of UNHCR's offices, and what impact did this have on their access to employment, healthcare, and education?</li><li>How many individuals were affected by the security measures, and in what ways?</li><li>How many individuals faced detention or deportation due to the lack of identity documentation from UNHCR?</li><li>How many individuals died or were injured during the police intervention, and what was the immediate and long-term impact on their families and community?</li><li>How many detainees were eventually granted refugee status and released from prison?</li></ol>

 Legal (De)Categorisation 

They are the cornerstone of refugee protection and the key legal documents that form the basis of UNHCR’s work.

The 1951 Convention provides the internationally recognized definition of a refugee and outlines the legal protection, rights and assistance a refugee is entitled to receive. 

UNHCR serves as the ‘guardian’ of these documents and assists governments in translating them into national laws to ensure refugees are protected and can excise their rights.

The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol 

Who is an asylum seeker?

The right to seek international protection from persecution in another country by fleeing one's own country.

Right to Seek Asylum

The right to access formal education or appropriate educational opportunities for children and adults, ensuring their right to learn and develop their skills.

Right to Access to Education

The right to seek and engage in lawful employment in the country of asylum, enabling you to support yourself and contribute to society.

Right to Access to Employment

The right to access essential medical services and healthcare facilities in the country of asylum, ensuring your physical and mental well-being.

Right to Access to Healthcare

When you are in a foreign country escaping threats or persecution, you have the right to have your status recognized and confirmed legally. This means you are entitled to an official acknowledgment of your circumstances and protections in the host country. This recognition affirms your position and safeguards against being sent back to potential dangers. It's an essential right that establishes your place and rights within a new country.

Right to Legal Status Confirmation

Up to 2,500 Sudanese had been demonstrating in Cairo's Mostafa Mahmoud Park since September 29, primarily to protest living conditions and to demand that they be resettled to third countries. Throughout this period, UNHCR maintained a constant dialogue and several mediation efforts, always emphasising that such situations needed to be resolved peacefully.

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