Refugees Find Refuge

Something I wrote awhile ago for an independent Christian publication in Canada:

Refugees find Refuge

Anwar was 14 when he came to Egypt from Sudan, seeking a better life away from the civil war raging in his homeland. With his family divided and his parents and sisters still in Sudan, he was accompanied only by his uncle. Extremely lonely and with little support, he quit school shortly after arriving in Cairo and began to look elsewhere for a place to belong.

He soon found it in a group of other Sudanese youth. Interested in music and football (soccer) as he was, they became a second family. They were also a way to make a name for himself as something besides simply a “Sudanese refugee.” The fact that this group was also a gang wasn’t a problem for a 15-year-old desperate to be a part of something.

It didn’t take long before the better life that Anwar was pursuing nearly killed him. In a case of mistaken identity, a group of rival Sudanese youth attacked him. He spent four years in a gang, and became yet another victim of the Sudanese gang violence that is increasingly spilling out onto the streets of Cairo.

The Sudanese in Egypt
A peace agreement in 2005 between the Sudanese government and rebels in Sudan resulted in a curtailing of the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees’s (UNHCR) refugee screening program. Following this truce, the Egyptian government began sending many Sudanese back to Sudan, telling them it was now safe to return. Despite this, according to the UNHCR , there are over one million Sudanese living in Egypt, though other estimations put it closer to two and as high as four million. Of this number, only about 23,000 have legal refugee status, while the other hundreds of thousands must struggle along without the assistance of the UNHCR.

Many Sudanese arrived in Cairo expecting official refugee status and eventual resettlement in a Western country. This is unlikely for those not granted status prior to 2005. Although the 2004 “Four Freedoms Agreement” between Sudan and Egypt grants Sudanese the legal right to movement, residence, ownership and work within Egypt, most Sudanese know this policy means almost nothing. Dark-skinned and clearly foreigners, they often face intense racism in Egyptian society. They are seen as outsiders, and further competition for already scarce jobs and resources. Sudanese children have limited access to Egyptian schools, and instead must attend unaccredited church-run institutions if they have any hope of an education.

Many Sudanese families have been split up by the conflict back home, leaving a significant absence of fathers in many households. Among those families with fathers, the mother often ends up being the main breadwinner, as it is easier for females to find employment as domestic help. This puts families at an even greater disadvantage culturally, as the norm in Sudanese society is for the women to stay in the home. If there is no father, the mother’s employment leaves the children alone, often for days at a time.

Youth Adrift
The Sudanese experience in Egypt is especially hard on the youth. In an effort to escape the alienation they feel in Egypt, they form their own family groups. Caught between two societies and often feeling ostracized from both, the Sudanese instead identify strongly with African-American culture and the glamorous lifestyles of African-American rappers and entertainment artists they see on MTV. The two main Sudanese gangs in Cairo, the “Lost Boys” and the “Outlawz,” take their names from African-American rap groups. These titles also refer to the feeling of Sudanese youths in Egypt. The gang members, with their low-slung pants, chunky jewellery and baseball caps, can be seen guarding neighbourhoods they call New York, Chicago and Washington.

The violence among these gangs has been on the rise in the last four years, with the most infamous case being the public murder of 24-year-old Maliah Bekam on World Refugee Day in July 2007. Egyptian police, hesitant to intervene after prior criticism regarding treatment of Sudanese, step in only when the violence spreads outside the Sudanese community.

Hip-hop fosters hope
However, there are stories of hope emerging amidst the violence. Anwar survived the gang attack, and a few years later was invited by the staff of Refuge Egypt, a ministry of the Anglican/Episcopal church in Cairo, to a youth conference. Noticing his love of music, staff gave him the opportunity to play the guitar and introduced him to others his age. Several months after the conference, he had a dream in which he recalls the continuing question, “How long will you live like this?” Shortly afterwards, he quit the gang.

Today, Anwar is a staff member in the Youth Department at Refuge Egypt, one of the few organizations in the country that works specifically with Sudanese gangs. In 2007, Refuge Egypt started a hip-hop program, allowing youth to put their energy towards music. They meet once a week in a neighbourhood with a high Sudanese population and practice free-style rapping or hip-hop dancing. Through this work, the Refuge Egypt youth mentorship team hopes to replace the often negative connotations of hip hop and inspire the youth to create their own positive music.

The program also channels the youth’s love of football by renting several fields throughout Cairo, depending on finances. These weekly football matches give the youth a safe space to come together, away from the crowded urban slums in which most of them live.

The Youth Department team also dreams of offering vocational training. Many youths express interest in learning a new skill, and the possibility of employment would provide hope, get them off the street and reduce gang violence.

Though many see the gangs as simply another problem accompanying the refugees, Anwar is clear: “I want people to remember that these youth are victims. They have lost a lot, and they don’t know where they belong. They are destroyed upside-down psychologically, but there is hope through God’s word, and miracles can happen.”

He adds that the goal of the Youth Program is to “bring in youths so we can build them up and send them out” to connect with other youths and show them there is somewhere else to belong.

To learn more about Refuge Egypt or to donate to their work, visit www.refuge-egypt.org.