On 4 and 5 August, Egypt held Senate elections to fill 200 of the chamber’s 300 seats, with the remaining 100 appointed by the President. This marked the second Senate election since the chamber’s reinstatement in 2019. Egyptians living abroad voted earlier, on 1 and 2 August. Runoffs were held between 25 and 28 August in five regions. The National Unified List, a coalition of 12 pro-government parties led by the ruling Nation’s Future Party, ran unopposed and won all 100 list-based seats. The remaining 100 seats were elected in single member constituencies, with government-aligned parties, led by the Nation’s Future Party, also dominating. A quota reserves 30 seats (10 per cent of the chamber) for women. Voter turnout was low, standing at 17.1 per cent, although marking an increase from the previous 2020 senate election, in which turnout stood at 14.2 per cent.

Sources: Ahram Online, State Information System, British Broadcasting Corporation Arabic, IPU Parline

In June, authorities carried out mass detentions and deportations, forcibly dispersing the ‘Global March to Gaza,’ a transnational solidarity campaign involving over 4,000 participants from more than 80 countries. The group aimed to travel from Arish in North Sinai to the Rafah border crossing, the only gateway between Egypt and Gaza, to protest Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza. More than 200 participants were detained or interrogated upon arrival at Cairo International Airport or at their hotels, with many subsequently deported. Others were intercepted near Ismailia, where buses and convoys were stopped and dispersed. Egyptian nationals participating in or expressing solidarity with the marchers were also arrested. Rights groups reported abuses by the authorities, including beatings, electric shocks and denial of consular access.

Sources: Mada Masr (1), Mada Masr (2), Haaretz, Committee for Justice, Amnesty International, Middle East Eye

On 16 December, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi ratified Egypt's first asylum law, which transfers responsibility for asylum processing from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to a newly established government body, the Permanent Committee for Refugee Affairs. According to the government, the law is designed to bring Egypt's asylum procedures in line with international standards. However, rights groups have raised concerns, claiming that the law threatens the rights of asylum seekers and refugees. They point to vague exclusion criteria, the criminalization of irregular entry, and restrictions on refugees' political activities as particularly problematic. Additionally, vaguely defined emergency powers have sparked fears that they could be misused to arbitrarily deny asylum claims. Approximately 800,000 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with the UN Refugee Agency in Egypt.

Sources: Egyptian Official Gazette, Al-Shorouk, The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch

Sudanese refugees fleeing the war in Sudan face worsening conditions in Egypt, including mass arrests and forced deportations. The rights group Amnesty International reported on 19 June that Sudanese nationals fleeing from the ongoing war in Sudan are systematically denied access to the asylum process in Egypt, being instead detained in military facilities near the border and forcibly returned to Sudan without the ability to contest their deportations. Approximately 800 Sudanese nationals were deported between January and March 2024 under such circumstances, placing Sudanese asylum seekers at a heightened risk of exploitation. Egypt introduced strict visa requirements for Sudanese nationals in 2023, following the outbreak of the war in Sudan. This visa policy has severely restricted access to asylum and is estimated to have impacted over 500,000 Sudanese individuals seeking refuge through land crossings into Egypt. 

Sources: Reuters, Amnesty International, Egyptian State Information Service