UNHCR: 748,000 Refugees Registered in Egypt

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has released an official statement on the number of registered refugees in Egypt, detailing that the number of Sudanese refugees in particular has grown almost sevenfold since civil war broke out in Sudan in April 2023.

Currently, over 748,000 refugees and asylum-seekers are registered to be living in Egypt, most of whom fled Sudan in the past year and a half.

The expectation is that migration statistics will continue to rise exponentionally, according to a spokesperson for the UNHCR, and in contrast, resources in Egypt will continue to be scarce. Thus far, Egypt has received over 500,000 Sudances refugees, with 5 million already residing in Egypt before the war, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The 2024 Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan calls for USD 109 million in order to fund education and community spaces for displaced Sudanis. However, according to the UNHCR, only 20% of this sum has been mobilised to date, including USD 4.3 million from Egypt.

The statement underscored Egypt’s efforts to support the 9,000 Sudanese children arriving every month, yet Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and the UNHCR urged increased international effort to combat the funding shortfall, both for Sudanese children and for all children displaced by regional armed conflict.