Author: Shaimaa Colaiacovo Abdelhalim

Inside a small room in Conakry’s Maison Centrale prison, a uniformed police chief sat armed with a recorder.

Why don’t you want to let us govern in peace?, he asked. Why do you want to take away our power?

Saikou Balde, the inmate being questioned, could not speak. He felt as though he was suffocating. His silence prompted the police chief to order the guard who was in the room with them to begin beating him. And so he was hit, repeatedly, with a baton for almost an hour. The police chief sat on a seat next to him as he lay on the floor. Saikou remembers looking up at him helplessly as he lit up a cigarette, unfazed. This was just another day in Maison Centrale.

Now, Saikou sits in another small room, this time on the third floor above a Brooklyn credit union, wearing a suit and an airpod in his left ear. From his appearance, you would think he had just returned from his job in the financial district. That is, until he begins to talk.

Our conversation is conducted in French, as he tells me of his time in confinement. How he was crammed in one of the rooms of Maison Centrale de Conakry, the colonial era prison that despite being built to hold 300 prisoners, was now holding almost 2000 individuals. He was detained in July of 2023. Many, such as himself, were there on political charges without arrest warrants. Balde was a member of the Front National pour la Défense de la Constitution (FNDC), an opposition coalition created to campaign against the then-president, Alpha Conde’s attempt to amend the constitution. Following the 2021 coup, the FNDC became a key force in calling for the reestablishment of democratic rule.

When his family, lawyers and fellow activists were finally able to obtain his conditional release five months after his detainment, Balde knew he had no choice but to leave Conakry for good. All around him, FNDC members and other activists were being detained, disappearing or killed. His release was a stroke of luck and an opportunity; he knew that one way or another, he had to find a way out of Guinea before his next prison stint turned out differently. And so in January 2024, Balde made his way to Dakar, Senegal, going on to Istanbul, Turkey. From there, he would embark on what has been dubbed the ‘luxury route’ to the US by the New York times; a journey from West Africa to Latin America and into the US through the US-Mexico border. For him, this involved taking flights from Istanbul to Bogota, San Salvador and then Nicaragua, after which he used a variety of different modes of transport to get to Mexico and the Arizona border.

“I really didn’t want to leave. It was a question of saving myself,” Balde says. He shows me pictures of his wife, twin girls and baby boy who he left behind in Guinea on his phone. “That’s why I left. For them. I didn’t leave of my own free will, I left because it was necessary.”

More and more individuals such as Balde are making the long and arduous journey to the USA through transit stops in Central and South America, the route that has become known across West Africa as the ‘Nicaragua Route’. The numbers of migrants from these nations, although still only a small percentage of all individuals crossing the border, has dramatically increased over the years.

In 2023, the number apprehended at the border was 58,462; a 436.09% increase from 2022, when 13,406 migrants from African nations crossed, according to figures obtained by the New York Times. Driven by political violence, persecution or even just economic necessity, the trend reflects shifts in migration patterns that have seen young people, primarily from Senegal, Guinea, and Mauritania, set their sights on the US as their goal rather than Europe.

Insert interview with migration specialist – European borders being fortified? is this impacting the shift?

Ruth Maclean, chief of NYT’s West Africa bureau, points out that in order to make the journey, migrants have to have a significant amount of capital already, making this a migration route strictly reserved for the middle and upper classes. Flight packages from West Africa can cost up to $10,000, with thousands more being spent along the route.

Momadou Pethe, who now lives in Philadelphia, also immigrated from Guinea through the US-Mexico border following political persecution. His 49 day journey, in which he traveled by foot and bus after landing in Brasilia reveals the reality of the ‘luxury route’; a passage marked by extortion, physical hardship and police brutality.

Unlike Balde, who took flights for much of his journey, Pethe largely relied on buses to get to Mexico, traveling through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador before reaching the infamous Darien Gap in Colombia, which he had to cross by foot, an experience he says ….

~ insert his experience crossing the Darien gap

“From Peru, the policemen are taking your money,” Pethe explains. “When you meet the policemen, they take you off and check your stuff, and if they see your money, they take it.” Between each encounter, Pethe says he lost around $1000. By the time he reached Mexico, he had no money left and no means of getting more. He managed to make the last leg of his journey thanks to the generosity of another migrant he met, from Iran, who wired him $500 once he arrived in the US. They had met in Mexico, but Pethe had been forced to stay behind, unable to afford the rest of his journey.

“Among immigrants, if I see you and you have money, you help me,” Pethe said. “If I have money, I will help you. Even though we are not from the same place; you might be from Asia, India, or South Africa—if you see someone in need, you help them.”

~ Talk about the police brutality next – Saikou Balde and Talhatou’s experience

Next things to include:

The WHY

Push factors – insert interviews from Abdou, who lives in Senegal, academics emailed this week and Ruth Maclean,
Why certain nationalities predominate, Economic and social factors enabling the journey, Role of existing diaspora communities
Logistics – how this is being advertised (Abdou), what people’s perceptions are of the ‘nicaragua’ route in West Africa
Deeper analysis into regional trends maybe (unless covered in the section to be added on europe fortifying borders)

Present realities in the US & future outlook with Trump presidency

Language barriers, Economic integration } what factors are unique to African immigrants and asylum seekers
Little Senegal
Alpha Diallo’s work with Pan-African Community Development Initiative – is most of the support coming from within or outside of the community?
Success stories and support networks. Role of organizations like the Welcoming Center
Mamadou’s transition from asylum seeker to community worker
Concerns about Trump administration & the varying perspectives on future risks (Saikou’s optimism with Momadou Pethe & Alpha Diallo’s concerns)
Impact on future migration patterns – quote by academic / experts

Conclusion

broader implications
Future of African migration to US
Resilience, human cost, insular community, questions of integration?…..

What I loved about Jennifor Senior’s article about Bobby Mcllvaine was the emotional, narrative structure that fluttered between past and present. The use of quotes was in a way that was engaging, and the rest of the account was descriptive in just the right way; not too flowery, so as to become convoluted and lose the readers interest (as I think happened a bit in Katie Engelhart’s dementia article towards the end), but still detailed enough to build a specific picture in the reader’s mind. More than an article, this was a story that blended an investigation into the aftermath of Bobby’s death with narrative character development of the individual’s closest to him; his parents and ex-girlfriend. The focus on these characters displayed one of the key motifs of the article; how each individual coped with grief in their own way, through their backstories which are developed in the article. I enjoyed the timeline she utilized, the way that Bobby’s life was recounted intermittently all whilst using the story of the unrecovered diary as the element that tied the narrative and structure of the article. 

Nadja Drost’s article on the Darien gap, however, employed this narrative structure in order to address a wider societal point through shining the light on individuals, which is in many ways the point of journalism. What I enjoyed about the Darien gap article was how it weaved other, seemingly less related to migration aspects of the Darien gap’s broader history that contextualized it, and really embedded the danger of this zone in a way that I don’t think was transmitted in other articles I’ve read. What really tied these articles together was the character driven structure, which, understandably made them more gripping to read compared to if they had been more focused on the facts and history. I think these articles’ strengths were in interweaving the ‘news’ inbetween the stories of these individuals, using scene-based narratives, chronological progression and encaptivating descriptions. 

The moral calculations of a billionaire also used an individual story to talk about a wider societal issue; in this case, narratives around billionaires and taxing their wealth. Rather than following a storyline like the first two articles, I enjoyed the use of Leon Cooperman’s daily routine as a framing device as well as his direct perspectives scattered as a way to structure and focus the article. In this way, we got a view of the issue from the billionaire himself, down to the structure of what was being focused on. I liked the writing style here too. The sentences weren’t too long, and there was variety (eg- The market fell. The market rose…), making it a more interesting read. Not to bring up the dementia article again but to me there wasn’t this kind of variety in that article, and it did become a bit uninteresting towards the end (also it was extremely long and a bit drawn out, I thought). This variety (in the millionaire piece) also extended to paragraph length. I think what I also took away from it is that speech doesn’t have to be blockaded in the middle of a wider paragraph, as a way to introduce analysis or support it. It can stand on its own, in its own paragraph, bring more to the article – and make it a better read.

In Philadelphia’s Welcoming Center, a nonprofit focused on immigrant economic integration, Mariama Diallo sits confidently at her desk, where she works as an administrative support specialist. Under a black blazer that matches her hijab, Mariama wears a west african ankara dress, its bright pink fabric making her immediately noticeable. In the center, she exudes a quiet confidence, from the way she speaks to her mannerisms as she shows us around.

Just a year ago however, Mariama was in Conakry, Guinea, a city she was forced to flee following the 2021 coup. Initially, the coup was seen favorably by many Guineans, including Mariama; Conde, the previous president, had become increasingly authoritarian, and Mamady Doumboya, who took over, built his platform on promises of recapturing the power taken away from the people and holding fair elections. These promises, however, didn’t last long, as Mariama recalls the descent into violence after just a few months.

“We were very afraid. Sometimes I’d go to work, and couldn’t go home because they were fighting. I would sleep at a friend’s house or leave in the morning,’ she said. “One time we couldn’t leave the house for three days. Every day I prayed to god to stay alive. We saw people around us losing everything. And so my husband started to think about immigrating.”

Mariama insisted on migrating ‘legally’. Whilst awaiting a number of immigration applications, ranging from Quebec and Paris, both locations where she has family, Mariama and her husband won the US visa lottery. They immediately took the chance to leave, bringing them from the blue shores of Conakry all the way to concrete Philadelphia in December 2023.

The transition wasn’t easy. For only 11 months of English study she speaks with impressive confidence and fluency; her initial experience however, was tainted by linguistic barriers, cultural differences and even setbacks from within her own community. Although Mariama and her husband won the diversity lottery, they had a Guinean sponsor family. When they got here, the advice they gave them regarding their economic prospects as immigrants was discouraging.

“I thought maybe I could study and work in law here because in Guinea I had my masters in law,” she said. “But when I asked them, they said no – here, you’re an immigrant. You can work in a care home or in daycare, and your husband can do something like uber. I couldn’t be around people who didn’t want to help me grow as an individual. When I told them I’d got a job helping people at the welcoming center, doing administration and translation, they were shocked.”

With her extensive experience and education, Mariama didn’t want to confine herself to roles which were traditionally expected of immigrants such as herself. She soon got involved in the programs the Welcoming center offered, enrolling in the International Professionals Program (IPP) and Immigrant Leadership Institute (ILI), initiatives aimed at helping immigrants with previous qualifications in their home country integrate and gain the skills necessary to thrive in the American workplace.

As part of the program, she spearheaded the project “Who will listen to Us”, about the challenges immigrants face learning English, having been vocal about the specific barriers issues African, non-english and non-spanish speaking immigrants face in the USA, saying that spanish speaking immigrants have an easier time due to the abundance of multilingual resources already available in the language. She calls the event ‘her greatest moment here’, and is planning another initiative, a proposal for the Philadelphia department of education which suggests creating specialized language learning programs for immigrants based on their specific needs, from professional English to tailored programs for individuals with disabilities.

These programs were instrumental in helping Mariama find her footing professionally when she got to Philadelphia. She now works as an administrative support specialist for the Welcoming Center. When asked what is still missing from her new life in America however, she always goes back to the family and community she left in Guinea.

“In Africa, we have a culture of community and sharing. Socializing is a very big part of the culture. I was in a big family, there were always people around me. Now, I’m only with my husband. Especially during Ramadan, I felt so alone. It can be especially depressing for my husband, especially as he works at home and is alone for longer periods of time when I leave for work and go to Center City. Socializing isn’t a big thing here. You can go mad if you’re not careful.”

It’s a challenge she tries to address in her volunteer work, saying that this isn’t an issue that only affects immigrants. She works both as a Fulani and French translator for AFAHO (African Family Health Organization) events as well as volunteering at the Lutheran Settlement House, which she credits for creating a semblance of the community she had back in Conakry. “I do food distribution every Thursday,” she says, smiling. “We eat, put on music. The old people dance. They’re happy because in their homes, they’re alone too. Even American people need something like this, an environment where they can meet with other people, even once a week. That’s why I like that house. They’re good people, and you can learn alot from them.”

When talking about the current anti-immigrant sentiment from the political right, Anuj Gupta, The Welcoming Center’s director, remarked;

‘When we shut our borders, we lose out on the collective benefit from talent, education, skill, and most of all, determination. You want us to say no to that kind of drive? That kind of determination?

Give immigrants the skill sets and knowledge to address barriers. To become advocates for themselves and their communities. To learn how to engage with elected officials, local government, and become agents of change. And that 3 part model is what comprises the Welcoming Center.”

Mariama’s professional transition, ambition and commitment to serving her community exemplifies the purpose of the center and its programs. Even when talking about what lies ahead for her in the long term, she is oriented in the ways in which she can make an impact, but sees her future eventually circling back to West Africa. There, she dreams of creating an initiative to raise awareness and support Albino communities, who she says are targeted and face discrimination.

The coup and its aftermath brought Mariama to Philadelphia. At the end of the day however, she says; “I am African. I know many things, and many problems in Africa. I won’t stay in America because I can say that they don’t need me here – Africa needs me more.”

Eleven months after fleeing Sudan’s civil war to Cairo with his family, Mohamed Hassan faced a dilemma. Though safe from the horrors of the war, Cairo provided a new set of economic challenges that left him and his family struggling to build a new life. Coupled with the worsening economic situation in Cairo, hearing of the Sudanese Armed Forces recapture of Omdurman, where the family comes from, forced Hassan to consider moving back to the province.

“I was living in a two-bedroom apartment with 10 of my family members, so it was tight,” he told The National . “I arrived in November of last year and it has been one of the hardest years of my life. In the few weeks before I departed Egypt, life had become too expensive to sustain. The school year started and I couldn’t enroll my children because of the high fees.” 

On October 1, 2024, Hassan moved back to Sudan with his wife, daughter and sister, a decision increasing numbers of Sudanese refugees in Egypt are taking. More than 12,239 people crossed into Sudan from Egypt in September of 2024, an increase from the 7,890 in August, a report by the Sudan News Agency confirmed. The numbers are expected to increase as the weeks go on, signaling the extent problems in Egypt are affecting refugees. 

For the 550,00 Sudanese who fled following the outbreak of the war, legal, social and economic barriers have put most into situations of financial precarity. Unable to access services because of lack of aid and organizations on the ground, as well as the necessary documentation needed for employment, many found themselves either unable to make a living or forced into high risk jobs in the informal sector and vulnerable to exploitation. Egypt is a primary destination for Sudanese refugees. However, historical ties between the two nations haven’t resulted in a hospitable welcome or coordination to help in the settlement of those who made it to Egypt, or their legal integration into the labor force. 

In 2004, Egypt and Sudan signed the Four Freedoms Agreement, a framework that in theory aimed to guarantee freedom of movement, residency, work and property ownership for their respective citizens. In the face of restrictions Sudanese face both at the border and administratively once they arrive in Cairo, the promises of the agreement remain unfulfilled. 

‘I’ve heard stories about people being in crisis for decades and still not being able to access any kind of government assistance, so it’s definitely stressful. It’s been nine months, and they still haven’t gotten their yellow cards yet’, said Reem Saeed, a Sudanese Princeton student about her family who fled Khartoum. 

They now live in the Giza governorate, an area west of central Cairo where a large number of Sudanese people have settled. ‘They’ve been trying through the Egyptian government, but that wasn’t working. Now they’re trying with the UN, but it’s such a long and expensive process. They’re completely undocumented, so any employment that they do have isn’t as substantive as if they had full documentation, or even refugee status period,” she said. 

Refugees who make it into Egypt must register with the UNHCR in order to obtain a yellow card. This guarantees them access to essential services such as healthcare, education, permits employment as well as legal protections against deportation, generally for a period of 18 months. Egypt only has three UNHCR offices across the country, two of which are in Greater Cairo and the last in Alexandra, meaning Sudanese are unable to register at the southern border and must first reach the north of the country before registering. Even in Cairo, however, waiting periods for registration can stretch up to six months, leaving many in administrative and economic limbo. In some cases, authorities have denied refugee status to some, claiming they came from ‘nonviolent’ areas.

Reem says her family was reasonably wealthy prior to the war; now, they rely on money her family in the US send back every month to support them. But those who can’t rely on remittances often end up forced into the informal sector, where there are no labor protections and work is poorly paid. 

Meanwhile, Sudanese people are increasingly scapegoated amidst economic problems in Egypt. In January 2024, Prime minister Mostafa Madbouly made statements regarding government assistance to refugees that resulted in a surge of anti-migrant and anti-refugee sentiment following its media coverage, Sada Journal reported. 

For most however, community-run initiatives make up the bulk of support, most set up by Sudanese themselves. For example, in 2020, Amal Raha Bouda, a Sudanese refugee who moved to Egypt in 2018 launched Hope for the Future, a female-run initiative that offers community, education and help for those facing issues such as homelessness and domestic violence. Community schools have been especially vital in providing Sudanese children with education whilst they wait for their yellow cards, without which they are unable to enroll in state schools. 

Angela Klara, a legal caseworker who handles asylum cases in Cairo, attributes the situation to both racism and donor exhaustion.”There’s just nowhere near enough funding. With everything going on in Gaza, Sudan just doesn’t have the same visibility,” she said. “There’s obviously also a racial angle as to why everyones looking away. In Egypt, they’re Black, they’re seen as uneducated, and they don’t get the same urgency as other refugees.”

Sudanese refugees increasingly face discriminatory and racist attacks at the hands of both the police and civilians. These have left the community living and operating in fear, with many scared to leave the house as they know they will be targeted based on their race.

In June, Amnesty International reported the arrest and forcible return of over 800 Sudanese refugees between October 2023 and March 2024. Tracking these cases is difficult as the Egyptian government does not provide statistics on arrests or deportations. An investigation by the New Humanitarian however reported that thousands of cases had been recorded between the Global detention project and the UNHCR. 

The Egyptian State Information Service did not respond to a request for comment.

Articles such as Caitlin Dickerson’s are so vitally important to journalism, society and politics. Her and Addario brought to readers the extremity of the experiences migrants are willing to put themselves and their children through just to try and reach the US, experiences which I think are not portrayed for their gruesome reality in the way that they should be in political discourse. However when reading I thought back to the discussion a few of us had at the welcoming center about The Struggling Girl and journalists responsibility whilst documenting and relaying the experiences of people they are writing about. In this case I thought it was particularly interesting as Dickerson and Addario decided to make the journey alongside the other migrants, rather than it being a case of western journalists being dropped into situations momentarily to witness and relay them in their current moment, and then leaving once they’ve got enough material rather than experiencing things for themselves. At the same time, while they photographed people and the journey and talked about their struggles, such as not being able to afford food, medicine, as well as meeting unaccompanied children I just imagined how uncomfortable I would be to be reporting and spectating, knowing that potentially I had the power to ease their some of their economic struggles as well established american journalists but choosing not to in order to get an accurate ‘scoop’. They are doing such an essential job of reporting the realities of the Darien gap but at the same time I can’t help feeling morally ambiguous about spectating so much human struggle without intervening, especially to those whose life experiences they will go on to profit from once they are back in the US and have written about them. I think this is why journalism by those living experiences on the ground, such as the type of journalism we have seen the past year from Gazans, needs to be massively amplified and supported. 

In terms of the policy issues discussed, the failures of both deterrence as well as more conciliatory policies was a common theme. The Atlantic article heavily pointed out the unintended effects of deterrence policies, whilst the New Yorker made it clear that more conciliatory policies – by no surprise – don’t end up stemming the constant flow of individuals trying to immigrate for economic opportunities. I think framing is so important when considering these issues. Out of moral principle, refugees and asylum seekers should not be framed as causing immigration ‘problems’ for the US or any country who has signed the refugee conventions. They are simply operating within a framework states have agreed and committed too. Even with the case of economic immigrants, I think as Anuj Gupta at the welcoming center put it, the US needs more workers, and there are so many unfulfilled jobs. The bigger issue here is connecting immigrants with the necessary job openings because the reality is, yes maybe NYC is spending a few billion dollars on receiving immigrants, but the city budget is $112.4 billion. The US spends over 700 billion annually on the military.  I am not an expert in budgetary affairs, but I think  these numbers need to be contextualized, especially when it comes to immigrants and the net gain they contribute over time. 

Azmat Khan’s sobering piece on US drone warfare in Afghanistan left me less with a new insight on American military conduct and more so with a greater appreciation for journalism’s role in the systems of political accountability. What she demonstrated in her piece is that journalists go beyond simply relaying the information that they discover; sometimes they have to create their own lead rather than be informed by outside sources, as she did by questioning the official line put forward by the Obama government. The way in which she conducted her research however also displayed the limitations to a ‘free press’. The lawsuits currently in place to try and obtain more military documents credibility assessments in relation to Afghanistan and the fact that the Times only received 1,311 out of 2,866 reports made me think back to the state secrets privilege legal precedent that is active in the US and the limitations it creates for journalists and the information the public receives. If these 1000 or so documents were those deemed ok to be released to the public, knowing what kind of horrific details they revealed about the state of US military conduct, what would the remaining documents, not deemed suitable for the public eye, further reveal? Of course, state secrets and the 9 exemptions to the release of FOI documents or their use in legal proceedings can have grounds in protection of national security, but at the same time, the US has pulled out of Afghanistan. It doesn’t have to worry about maintaining relations or upholding foreign governments secrecy with a non-Taliban government, as that doesn’t exist any more. I find it very hard to see what the reasoning would be behind not releasing documents related to drone warfare, or at least releasing information in a way that could protect . For example, Khan was focused on the conversations and the way drone operators evaluated locations for their viability as ISIS targets. I am sure that in many cases, other snippets of these conversations and assessments could be released without releasing other vital pieces of information that perhaps would threaten national security or relationships with foreign allies – however I will admit that what I am saying is becoming very speculative of what these documents could actually contain. My main point is that I find it worrying the extent to which the agencies journalists are aiming to critique can shield themselves – it is not uncommon for the CIA and military agencies for example to withhold documents whose release would supposedly hurt ‘national security’, when later they merely addressed internal abuses of human rights committed by these agencies that would damage their reputations. In this way, these agencies still have some power in shaping media narratives simply by withholding information. Of course, Khan did most of the work on the ground by speaking to victims and sharing the stories of the victims killed but ignored by official figures. However what made her piece so monumental was the way she directly followed the patterns of US strikes where they had made it clear in their documents that there were potentially civilians; in a way conducting a form of present archeology and narrative reversal, deconstructing their claims that would not have been possible. The larger question is how to establish greater transparency, especially when agencies have powers to reject FOI requests, which remains a political question within which journalists play an essential role, even just by highlighting how many rejections they receive or by how hard it is to get some types of documents.

CAIRO, EGYPT; Nearly a year on from the start of Israel’s large-scale bombing campaign, an estimated 100,000 Gazans have fled to Cairo. With the only escape being through the Southern Rafah crossing, Egyptian couriers have been accused of profiting from the excessive “coordination fees” needed to cross the border.

Once in Egypt however, the absence of a UN refugee body that works with Palestinians, as well as Egypt’s reluctance to give Palestinians residency or refugee status has left most in a state of uncertainty. Despite being the lucky few to have escaped the worst in Gaza, their current lack of access to employment, education and other essential services has left many with little hope for building a future.

Khaled Alghorani left Gaza for Egypt six months ago. “We are here with no residency permit or anything like that,” he says. “ We can’t access anything. Without residency, we can’t work; we can only open small businesses, but even that is very hard to get permission for. The only way right now is to either invest a huge amount of money ( approximately more 150-200k USD ) or buy a large amount of assets, so its hard for most of us.” Khaled studied Medicine at Al-Azhar University but has been unable to resume his studies or find employment, a position that many Gazans in Cairo find themselves in.

Establishing themselves as refugees or obtaining residency is not an easy task for those coming from the Palestinian territories. Egypt hosts over 756,000 refugees, with the UNHCR being the agency tasked with registering asylum seekers and facilitating refugees’ access to health and education services. Palestinians however, are the only group who fall outside of the UNHCR’s remit, leaving them unable to go through traditional regularization routes.

“When Palestinians come to the UNHCR, they’re essentially told to fuck off,” said Sara White, a former UNHCR legal officer based in Cairo. “In theory, the UNRWA would deal with them, but Egypt doesn’t want them there for political reasons”. UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, was set up by the UN in 1949 specifically to deal with displaced Palestinians. Despite operating in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, it does not operate in Egypt, and the Egyptian government has made it clear that it would not allow it or similar agencies to operate on its territory, citing security reasons as well as claims that it would aid in the permanent resettlement of Palestinians, thus harming their prospects of returning to Palestine.

“There is a deep history regarding the UN agencies that take responsibility for Palestinian refugees,” says Dawn Chatty, Oxford University professor of anthropology to the Guardian. “The Egyptian government is not going to give them asylum,” she says. “Granting official asylum to people fleeing Gaza could “destroy” their notional right to return to these lands and could put Egypt “in big trouble with other Arab states.”

Egypt has long refused to recognize Palestinians’ right to asylum. Instead, Palestinian refugees in Egypt are instead classified as “our guests” or “our siblings”, for fears of creating these legal and material conditions that may encourage Palestinians to remain.

In practice however, with neither UNRWA nor UNHCR aid available, Gazans in Egypt have been left dependent on local and grassroots initiatives for support, many set up by Palestinians themselves. Many other groups are formed through Facebook, with Egyptians creating fundraisers and offering advice, for example in finding accommodation or informal work opportunities.

The issues within the current system don’t stop at the legal discrepancies, as some have pointed out. The inequalities begin from the start of the journey, as reports have exposed Hala Consulting and Tourism Services, the sole agent with a monopoly over Gaza crossings, for the extortionate fees it charges for each passage.

Officially, only foreign nationals and injured Palestinians were allowed to evacuate. As the war went on, however, Gazans were able to buy their way out through the Egyptian agency, which has been linked to the Egyptian security establishment. The prices, which before the war were set at around $300 per passage per person, have increased to around $5000 for adults and $2500 for children. Many have resorted to online crowdfunding as a way to pay the fees, as well as help from any relatives they may have abroad. The fees are then paid to a travel agency, who take a cut and send the remaining amount to Egyptian officials who coordinate the crossing.

Legal experts argue that Egypt must accept refugees. In an op-ed for Foreign Policy Magazine, Alice Edwards, the UN special rapporteur on torture argued that “Egypt’s decision to seal its border with Gaza violates international humanitarian law and international refugee law.” She added that “Under the 1951 Convention, responsibility transfers to UNHCR outside the areas UNRWA doesn’t serve. In other words, UNHCR is required to support Palestinian refugees who reach Egypt. International cooperation is a foundational principle and that all states must play their part.” But without an active effort by the Egyptian government to classify Palestinians as ‘refugees’, this obligation remains unfulfilled, leaving Gazans in a precarious state.

Egyptians however, despite being vocal in support of the Palestinian cause, are wary of treating Palestinians in the same way as other refugees, arguing that efforts should be focused on ending the war, rather than pressuring Egypt to open its borders.

“If everyone leaves, there will be no more Gaza,” says Youssef Ali, a Princeton student from Cairo. “The only reason we call it Palestine or Gaza is because people still live there and assert it as such. People from Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia.. they all have a country to return to once the conflict ends. In the case of Palestine, they would never be able to return, as Israel would simply take the land, build homes, and that would be the end of it. Palestine, as we know it, would cease to exist, and a cause that has persisted for more than seven decades would disappear. This is why we don’t want to accept all Gazans.”

History has shown Egypt the long-term perils of supporting Palestinian migration out of the territories. The situation of Gazans in Cairo has demonstrated the political dilemma Egyptians claim they face, of needing to preserve the Palestinian right of return whilst providing Gazans with the immediate legal and humanitarian aid they need. However, without mechanisms to integrate and aid Palestinians as refugees, Gazans will continue to suffer in the absence of both the UNHCR and UNRWA.

Of this week’s readings, I found Alan Little’s BBC article particularly informative and enjoyed how analytical it was. As someone who loves studying the cold war, gaining a greater understanding through the creation of parallels between current events and key moments in Cold War history was interesting to read, for example noting that Ukrainians are fighting for Helsinki while Russia is more focused on a european order closer to what was established at Yalta, thus drawing back and showing the influence of previous agreements and conceptions of the right form of European organization. What was particularly skillful was the deliberate choice of historical events mentioned in the piece for a specific effect. For example, ending the article by highlighting the lesser known precarity of the Cuban Missile Crisis due to what was unknown by the public about Soviet military capabilities was a tactful reminder not only that often such military occurrences that seem so distant to us are far more precarious than may seem; and that there are always facts kept from the public which should make us think more critically when trying to make our own risk assessments of war based on what information is shown to us by mainstream media. 

The CSIS article, which highlighted how digital infrastructure has enabled Ukrainian refugees to access services more efficiently, was an enlightening read into the logistics of refugee reception. The use of biometric data, which I then went on to read in the case of Jordan and Syrian refugees seemed a more streamlined approach; the article detailed how often pins would be forgotten, bank cards would get lost, and when aiming to get access for such a great number of refugees, biometric data was a far more efficient approach for both parties. However, as always is the case with biometrics, issues of privacy are always a concern, especially as the UNHCR is required to give this information up to the host country; with the rise of the far right, I can see this being weaponized to the detriment of refugee rights.  In terms of digital tools, it was also a shock to me seeing the corporate charity and how it plays into not just refugee issues; Airbnb certainly helped in the case of Ukrainians, but when looking at their controversy with how they allowed listings from illegal settlements in the West Bank, so charitable efforts from companies never seem to be justice-oriented solutions as it comes across as always predicated on what is most popular politically, which can then later translate into profits. 

Beyond this, the ‘Tactical choreography’ in the NYT article made me think to the relationship of art and war. Aside from providing a lens into the humanity of individuals in conflict, I felt the articles highlighted the way art and creativity stems from instances of struggle, both as an emotional representation of violence and suffering but also in a more activist sense, beyond just being an individualized outlet for the artist. Art serves war; in propaganda, in depictions of popular culture, in photography and in literature, but at the same time it emerges from it. That is not to say war is a beneficial force in any way; the articles just further seemed to illustrate one of many instances of creative retaliation and response to moments of oppression and human struggle.

Before reading this week’s articles, I was very much ignorant of recent developments and trends in migration across the US. My first reaction and point I want to address centers on scale; the number of migrants in a specific time that the articles highlight, and how my perspective changed upon being able to reflect with relativity to the reception and intake of Ukrainian refugees.

The NYT’s interactive infographic was a particularly insightful tool in understanding the spread of migrants as a result of Governor Abbott’s bus policy. As the swarm of dots increased it relayed to me the increasing gravity and impact of such large numbers of migrants – or so I thought. My initial reaction to the seemingly immense number of arrivals after reading the NYT migrant busing article was of an unwilling understanding of the seemingly infeasibility of the current situation regarding migrant arrivals of such as scale in Texas, especially after having read the having read the City & State timeline, which relayed all the funding and budget complications, backtracking and inefficiencies with the Adams administration’s handling of their then arrival in NYC. However comparing the numbers (119,000 bused over two years to the democrat led cities) to the 535,000 Ukrainians who arrived over a similar span of time made me question the framing of this as an inevitable crisis rather than one that could have been managed in a more organized and humane way. Additionally to this, I wondered more about the funding of these programs and schemes. In the UK, many current and previously proposed programs spend thousands and thousands on the deportation and creation of schemes to house immigrants offshore in order to avoid legal obligations; funds which if had been more directly funneled to immigrants would have helped with their settlement and integration in many cases; there tends to be a common theme of misspending and wasteful allocation of resources, motivated by political schematics of not wanting to be seen as giving migrants handouts, leaving many in the situations detailed in the NYT article on homeless migrants.

Governor Abbott’s policy highlights to me however the importance of equal migrant distribution. The articles made it clear that there was a pointed political aim behind busing them to exclusively democrat-run cities; however, it did bring direct attention to the issue and pointedly showed how difficult the unstructured reception of migrants can be. However it does highlight the potential for such a method to be implemented successfully if done either in a proportional manner to the state’s population and ability to receive migrants (for example if they have the necessary accommodation and infrastructure) or areas potentially facing labor shortages. Nations, such as states should be prepared to take on more equal roles in receiving migrants; the UK is as guilty of this by creating furour and anti-immigrant rhetoric despite taking in far less migrants and refugees proportionally than many worse hit southern European states.

The last thing I wanted to drop in was a reaction to Title 42 upon learning about it – can the way this was implemented have gone against Geneva conventions? I understand the impetus for blocking people from certain nations when preventing the spread of disease, but when other types of travelers were being allowed to enter the US with no restrictions or testing, refusing asylum seekers seems like a violation of refugee rights. Where does the line get drawn balancing receiving asylum seekers and containing diseases; especially when quarantine and testing are options?