On the occasion of the International Day of immigrants
A call from the families of illegal immigration detainees in Egypt
Release our people and stop their torture and ill-treatment

The Land Center for Human Rights held a workshop at its headquarters in Cairo in cooperation with the group of Strait To The Sea from the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo on Thursday, 18/12/2008. The workshop was entitled: The migration of Egyptian youth, an ongoing reality and an uncertain future!!
The workshop was attended by 60 participants. Among the participants were migrant workers and their families, the representatives of civil rural associations, and some journalists and academics and lawyers from the governorates of Cairo, Kafr El-Sheikh, Dakahlia, Qena, Fayoum, Giza, Asyut, Behera, Gharbia and Damietta.
The first session was chaired by Dr. Osama Bedier, coordinator of the workshop. The discussion addressed the political, social, economic and media aspects of illegal immigration. He emphasized the importance of the workshop which comes under repeated incidents of illegal immigration over the last few months of many of the youth of Egypt to European countries, and the deteriorating conditions of human rights. Then spoke Dr. Yosri Mustafa, an expert in the field of human rights. In his speech he stressed the importance of this phenomenon, as it is linked to the issue of whether society exists or not. This, in the context of the convergence of the culture of human rights and migration.
Then started the second session, which was headed by Ms. Lyna Atallah, from Strait To The Sea group of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at American University in Cairo. She gave a quick review of some of the conventions and international instruments that could contribute to the protection of victims of unorganized migration, including charters and international treaties.
The third session was chaired by Professor Mahmoud Mortada, the Director of the Center for Alternative Development. He focused on local laws and security practices that deal with illegal immigration.
Then spoke Mr. Ahmed Hassan, a lawyer, who demonstrated in his speech how detention of illegal migrants is in violation to the Constitution and the law. He stressed on the unconstitutionality of the of the Interior Ministry's actions against these young victims.
At the end of the workshop, the attendees agreed on the need to undertake a number of activities to improve the situation of these young people, the most important of which are:
• Forming a legal committee of lawyers to defend the detainees.
• Organizing a protest to condemn the arbitrariness of the authorities towards immigrants and their families.
• Exposing the security practices against migrants and their families through the media.
• Asking the members of both houses of parliament to submit requests for interviews and briefings for the rapid release of the detained immigrants or their families.
• Demanding the National Council for Women and Children for Human Rights and the relevant governmental Complaint Offices to intervene to stop the indiscriminate arrest, detention and torture against immigrants and their families.
• Adopting a wide smear campaign by human rights organizations to punish corrupt officials and middlemen who trade in our youth. • Forming a committee of the people and lawyers to hold a regular meeting for the implementation of those activities, and to follow-up developments.
The attendees demanded that the LCHR coordinates the implementation of these activities, in order to improve the human rights situation in Egypt, the release of detained migrants and their families, stop torture and ill-treatment, punish the those responsible for the spread of the phenomenon, restore respect for the law, the Constitution, and the international conventions of the International Labor Organization and the United Nations, and to ensure the rights of migrants in freedom, safety and a dignified life.