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Iraqi Children in Egypt and the UNHCR
Janet McGiffin / April 10, 2008
April 10, 2008 -— International NGOs working on behalf of children in Egypt, such as Terre des Hommes or Save the Children, are finding it difficult to develop a plan to fill the needs of Iraqi children here, primarily because it seems impossible to determine how many Iraqi children there are in Egypt, and what they need.
The numbers vary as to how many total Iraqis refugees are living in Egypt. In April 2008, an Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman estimated there are 100,000-150,000 Iraqi refugees of all ages living in Egypt. The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) reports that as of December 31, 2007 throughout the region from Iraq across North Africa, close to 250,000 Iraqis had registered with UNHCR as asylum seekers and refugees. In Egypt, around 11,000 Iraqis had registered with UNHCR. Of these, 3,300 were school-age children.
Refugees from any country who are registered with UNHCR as refugees or asylum receive a Yellow Card from the UNHCR which gives them temporary residency in Egypt, certain types of protection, and access to medical and financial assistance. Children who are refugees also receive educational assistance—or some of them do.
“The UNHCR must provide the same services for all refugees,” explains Abeer Etefa, Regional Public Information officer for the Middle East and North Africa. “These 11,000 Iraqis are 25% of the total refugees registered at UNHCR. We cannot discriminate. We cannot give more to an Iraqi living in Cairo than we can give to a Sudanese. Not only is it against UNHCR policy, but if we discriminate among refugee groups, we make a lot of trouble between the refugee groups.”
Educational assistance for children is a case in point. Most Iraqi parents register their children in private schools in Egypt: Palestinian and Sudanese children can enrol in certain public schools, but Iraqi children can do so only if there is no private school in the area. This means that school can costs more for an Iraqi child than for some other refugee populations.
For the academic year 2007/2008, some 6,900 school-age children (elementary, middle and secondary education) who are refugees of all nationalities received UNHCR education grants which partially cover their education costs. Of these 6,900 refugee children, 2,621 were Iraqi. Of these Iraqi children, 202 were enrolled in public schools and 2,419 in private schools.
According to UNHCR statistics, 546 refugee children from all refugee groups are registered in Egyptian public schools, with the majority in Alexandria. This does not count the number of refugee children who study at home and take their final exams at certain public schools.
UNHCR staff acknowledge that 2,621 school age Iraqi children is a low number when compared to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry figure of 150,000 Iraqis in Egypt. “Where are all these Iraqis?” asked one UNHCR staff member in March at a meeting held with Tadamon-Egyptian Refugee Multicultural Council Council, an umbrella organization for some refugee NGOs in Cairo. “Why are they not registering with UNHCR?”
“Our registration time to give someone a Yellow Card is two to three weeks,” states Abeer Etefa, “That’s a very short time compared to other countries in the region, because we don’t have as many people registering. In Jordan, sometimes it has been between six to seven months. In Cairo we had one day in 2006 when seven hundred people came to register, but this was the peak. Since then it has been reduced.”
In September 2007, UNHCR carried out an information campaign called "back2school" to inform Iraqi refugees and other groups of refugees and asylum seekers about these education grants. In October 2007, UNHCR did an analysis of private school tuition in the type of schools where refugees and asylum seekers were enrolling their children. The UNHCR has found that Iraqi families pay between 1200 to 2500 Egyptian pounds for their children’s tuition. UNHCR offered parents with three or more children attending private schools an education grant of 1800 LE. “At the end of November in 2007, we opened our fees to raise them to 2,000 EGP,” said Abeer Etefa.
“We would really like to do more to assist Egyptian private schools to encourage them to take more refugees,” says Abeer Etefa. “We would like to help provide computer equipment, for example, or other things. By law, Egyptian private schools cannot take a donation unless the government authorizes them to do so. We have contacted the Ministry of Education to discuss this with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
The number of Iraqis in Egypt is still changing. In November 2006, Egypt stopped issuing entrance visas to Iraqis. In recent months, Iraqis have been leaving Egypt due to financial collapse. “Generally speaking, there is an increasing number of Iraqis registered with UNHCR who approach the office because they want to close the files with the agency in preparation for return to Iraq,” said Abeer Etefa the last week in March. “After they close the files, we do not know if they return or not.”
