from AHMED MOOLLA in Cairo, Egypt
Egypt Bureau
CAIRO, (CAJ News) – HUMAN rights groups have appealed to Egypt to end an ongoing crackdown on religious minorities and halt plans to forcibly return an asylum seeker who is at risk of deportation to Syria.
Amnesty International and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) reveal they have recently documented the arbitrary detention of at least four members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light.
The men, who include two Syrian brothers registered as asylum seekers with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), were detained at their homes in three different governorates.
Three of them were subsequently subjected to enforced disappearance with their fate and whereabouts currently unknown, while one man remains held incommunicado.
“It is outrageous that these men have been targeted and forcibly disappeared simply for not espousing state-sanctioned religious beliefs,” said Mahmoud Shalaby, Egypt and Libya Researcher at Amnesty International.
The official said Egyptian authorities had legal obligations to respect and protect the right to freedom of religion of everyone in the country, which includes those with religious beliefs not recognized by the state.
“Instead of arbitrarily detaining and forcibly disappearing people for exercising their religious beliefs or threatening to deport them, the Egyptian authorities should immediately disclose the men’s fate and whereabouts and unconditionally release them.”
Among those targeted is Ahmed Al-Tanawi, a 28-year-old Syrian asylum seeker, who is at imminent risk of deportation to Syria.
The security situation in Syria remains volatile and Amnesty International continues to oppose forced returns to the country.
In Egypt, religious minorities include Coptic Christians, Shi’a Muslims and Bahá.
Rights groups report these consistently face discrimination in law and/or practice.
– CAJ News