Egypt announced on Saturday that it was imposing visa entry for Sudanese citizens arriving at the Egyptian borders in order to regulate the process, not limit or restrict entry, according to a statement by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Those measures aim to set an organizational framework for that process after more than 50 days since the outbreak of the crisis, and they are not intended to prevent or limit the number of Sudanese citizens entering Egypt,” the statement quoted Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Abu Zeid as saying.
Abu Zaid’s remarks came in response to inquiries by several diplomatic journalists on the reasons for the decision.
Egyptian authorities had so far exempted Sudanese women of all ages, children under 16 and anyone over 50 from having to obtain a visa prior to arrival at a point of entry.
Egypt has received more than 200,000 Sudanese citizens since the outbreak of the crisis and until today, which makes the country the highest among Sudan's neighboring countries in terms of the number of Sudanese brothers received, Abu-Zeid said.
On the reasons behind the newly-imposed visa entry, Abu-Zeid revealed that illegal activities by individuals and groups on the Sudanese side of the border were recently detected, adding that these activities included forging entry visas to Egypt to make profits.
Source: Al-Ahram Online
