Cairo, Egypt – An Egyptian watchdog organization says that approximately 50,000 Egyptians are banned from traveling abroad.

According to Hafez Abu Sa’da, the Secretary of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, the enforcement of emergency law in Egypt has allowed the security forces to act in a totalitarian manner with total disregard for the constitution and human rights.. Hafez stressed that “the International Declaration on Human Rights states that a citizen cannot be prevented from leaving his home country unless he does not meet certain criteria. . These conditions include the case where a citizen is convicted of a felony or is under investigation”.

According to Hafez, the majority of those whose travel rights have been revoked are leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, including the group’s Guide General, Mahdi Akef, Dr. Jamal Hishet, president of the Hiwar center, Ali Abdul Fattah, and Issam Al-Iryan.

“The decision to prevent Egyptians from travelling affected not only Muslim Brotherhood members, but also other human rights organizations. Recently, the authorities prevented three activists from the National Center for Residential Rights- Ghareeb Sulieman, Amal Gergis and Manal Al-Tiebi - from going to Thailand for a workshop”, said Hafez.

Several channels

According to activist Bahy ed-Din Hassan, Egypt suffers from “a state of imbalance between the various authorities with the security forces seeming to have total control”. Hassan added that the Egyptian constitution provides three circumstances in which the  authorities can prevent a citizen from foreign travel.

“These criteria are in line with Article 12 of the World Declaration on Human Rights, which states that every individual has the right to leave his/her country and that right cannot be denied unless there is a good legal basis to prevent travel.  This includes a criminal conviction or a case where the  person has been subpoenaed by a court of law”, said Hassan.

Hassan confirmed that the president of the People’s Council, Dr. Fathi Srour, demanded that the government pass a law to regulate the travel ban, stressing the importance of examining each case within a clearly set out law. . He said that any ban should be determined by the judicial system and not by a ministerial decree. .

“There are too many authorities that have the power to ban people from traveling. These  include the courts, the socialist public prosecutor, the public attorney, the assistant Minister of Justice, the president of the general intelligence, the president of the administrative control commission, the director of military intelligence, the military prosecutor, the first assistant to the Minister of Interior, the director of Public Security and the director of personal affairs and social service in the Armed Forces”, Hassan explained Source :

FACT INT-AMMAN-|29-8-2007|