9/30/2024 – Egyptian Human Rights Forum's report documents how Egyptian authorities have engaged in systematic transnational repression against Egyptian human rights defenders living abroad, including those in countries with strong legal protections. The report is based on a series of interviews with activists who left Egypt between 2017 and 2020, and now reside in the EU, US, Qatar, and Turkey. 

Repression tactics include judicial and legal harassment, deprivation of consular services and and identification documents, digital and physical surveillance, and intimidation of relatives remaining in Egypt.

 Transnational Repression – Targeting Egyptian Human Rights Defenders in the Diaspora

3/28/2023 – Amr Magdi, Senior Researcher in HRW's Middle East and North Africa Division, was a contributor to a report published earlier that month exposing how Egyptian authorities were refusing to provide identity documents to critics living abroad. In this dispatch, Magdi provides further details about how some foreign missions require citizens accessing services to provide extensive, unnecessary details, which are then sent directly to security agencies in Egypt. Magdi also mentions that since the publication of that initial report, Egyptian critics living in the UK and Qatar have reported similar abuses. 

Exile of Prison: Egypt's Offer to Critics Abroad

3/13/2023 – Through a series of interviews with 26 Egyptians living outside of Egypt, Human Rights Watch documents how Egyptian authorities have systematically refused to issue or renew identity documents (including passports, ID cards, or birth certificates) for dissidents, journalists, activists, and other critics living abroad. This appears to be a deliberate effort on the part of the Egyptian state to pressure dissidents to return to Egypt, where they will likely face persecution. 

Egypt: Dissidents Abroad Denied Identity Documents