Kazakhstan protests to Egypt over missing students

Kazakhstan has filed a note of protest to the Egyptian foreign ministry over the status of six Kazakh students who were reportedly detained in the north African country, Kazinform reported.

“It’s been 12 days since six nationals of Kazakhstan have gone missing in Cairo. According to reliable reports, they were detained by Egyptian law-enforcement agencies on the night of July 19. Until the present moment we have received no official notifications from the Egyptian side with explanations regarding the circumstances and reasons for detention,” Kazinform quoted the Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anuar Zhainakov as saying yesterday.

Zhainakov added that the Kazakh government does not know the students’ whereabouts.

Kazakh authorities have repeatedly contacted the Egyptian foreign ministry, law-enforcement bodies, the Supreme Court, and the assistant to the Egyptian president on national security matters – but such contacts have had “no effect”, Kazinform added.

Read: 107 people forcibly disappeared in Egypt

The six students, who had been in Egypt to learn Arabic have not contacted their families since 20 July. It has since been reported that they were detained by an Egyptian security service.

The Egyptian government has not commented or released any media statements on the issue.