According to yesterday’s statement by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Egypt announced that it was imposing visa entrtoese citizens arriving at the Egyptian borders to regulate the process, not limit nor restrict entry.
In a statement, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Abu-Zeid, said: These measures aim to set an organizational framework for that process after more than 50 days since the outbreak of the crisis, and they are not intended to prevent or limit the number of Sudanese citizens entering Egypt.
The spokesman further noted that Sudanese who have fled the conflict represents an addition to the nearly 5 million Sudanese citizens who were already present in Egypt before the start of the crisis.
He also mentioned that, to date, Egypt has received more than 200.000 Sudanese citizens since the outbreak of the crisis, which makes the country the highest among Sudan’s neighboring countries in terms of the number of Sudanese brothers received.
Abu Zaid made those remarks in response to inquiries by several diplomatic journalists on the reasons for the decision.
He also stated that the responsibility for providing the Sudanese who have recently arrived in Egypt with health, education, and housing rests with the Egyptian government, which provides the basic services to the Sudanese citizens on its territory.
On the reasons behind the newly-imposed visa entry, Abu-Zeid revealed that illegal activities by individuals and groups on the Sudanese side of the border were recently detected, adding that these activities included forging entry visas to Egypt to make profits.
These groups exploit the need of Sudanese citizens to come to Egypt and the good intentions of the Egyptian side in responding to the crisis and absorbing such a massive influx of Sudanese to Egypt, he clarified.
As a result, Abu-Zeid noted, the Egyptian authorities introduced regulatory procedures based on automated visas to combat these crimes.
Moreover, he confirmed that the Egyptian consulates in Sudan were provided with the necessary electronic devices to carry out these procedures accurately and promptly, ensuring the orderly arrival of Sudanese citizens to Egypt.
The spokesperson said that there were rules and procedures governing the entry of Sudanese citizens into Egypt, adding that these rules were formulated by joint consular committees with the Sudanese side, the spokesperson said.
These committees, he added, convene regularly to review and update the relevant procedures according to developments in the situation and circumstances.
