Amnesty calls on Egypt to investigate racial slurs against Sudan protesters

Amnesty International has called on the Egyptian government to investigate alleged beatings and racial slurs directed at Sudanese protesters.

Last week Sudanese migrants protested against the killing of 12-year-old Mohamed Hasan who was stabbed by an Egyptian man several times, according to eyewitnesses.

State-run media claimed the Egyptian man was in a financial dispute with Mohamed’s father.

Following his murder protesters gathered outside his house in Masaken Othman and the UNHCR office in 6th October City.

Some 49,000 Sudanese refugees are registered with the UNHCR in Egypt but there are thought to be far more in the country.

Demonstrators rallied against the violence, sexual violence, racism and discrimination they experience in Egypt and the government’s failure to protect them.

READ: Sudan calls for restraint after death of child in Egypt

In 2005 at least 20 Sudanese migrants died when thousands of Egyptian riot police evicted them from Mustafa Mahmoud square in Mohandiseen where they were protesting about conditions in Egypt.

At the protests on 29 October, Egyptian security forces fired tear gas and water cannons into the crowds and arrested 70, including children.

Amnesty reports that they were taken to a central prison in Giza where they were beaten with batons, and subject to racial slurs and ill-treatment.

They were interrogated over who had funded the protests and told that they shouldn’t challenge the Egyptian state.

Ten people are thought to still be detained though it is unclear what the charges against them are.

On Sunday, authorities announced they had arrested the suspected killer and said that he had confessed to killing Mohamed Hasan. They denied committing any human rights violations against the protesters.

The next day, security forces raided the homes and offices of Sudanese activists and threatened them with deportation and arrest.

When seven of Mohamed’s relatives went to the police station in 6th October City to identify his body they were detained in the station and had their phones taken away from them.

Five Sudanese nationals were later taken to the same station.