RIGHT TO HOUSING Authorities continued to carry out forced evictions and house demolitions, including in Cairo’s informal settlements and the historic “City of the Dead” cemetery, home to tens of thousands of residents, and arrested residents for protesting. In March, an administrative court ruled against residents of Waraq Island in Giza who complained against a 2021 government decision to appropriate their lands for “the public good” without adequate compensation. In February, security forces dispersed a protest by scores of Waraq Island residents using tear gas and carried out arrests. House demolitions and forced evictions took place in Al-Arish city in North Sinai, according to SFHR. In October, the army unlawfully fired live ammunition to disperse hundreds of peaceful protesters who staged a sit-in in Sheikh Zuwayed city in North Sinai demanding to be allowed to return to their homes in Sheikh Zuwayed and Rafah city, also in North Sinai, from where they had been forcibly displaced since 2014 due to military operations against armed groups, including Wilayat Sinai, an affiliate of the Islamic State armed group. FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND BELIEF Authorities continued to discriminate against Christians in law and practice. No one was held accountable for sectarian attacks in January against Christians in the village of Ashruba in Minya governorate, which led to injuries and property damage. The right to build or repair churches remained restricted by a 2016 law requiring approval from security agencies and other state bodies. In May, the prime minister announced that since the law came into force, the government had approved the legalization of 2,815 churches, approximately half of the submitted requests. In a positive development, in March, a family court in Cairo applied Christian Orthodox by-laws in an inheritance case brought by Huda Nassralla, a lawyer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a The State of the World’s Human Rights rights group. Generally, judges apply the Personal Status Law for Muslims, which discriminates against women in matters of inheritance. Members of religious minorities, atheists and others not espousing state-sanctioned religious beliefs were summoned and questioned by the NSA or otherwise threatened or harassed, including by their educational institutions and online. A Yemeni Christian convert from Islam, Abdul-Baqi Saeed Abdo, continued to be detained pending investigations by the SSSP on charges of “defamation of Islamic religion” and belonging to a “terrorist group” for social media posts about his beliefs.6 REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS From April, some 370,000 Sudanese nationals fled to Egypt, according to UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. The authorities tightened entry restrictions, requiring all Sudanese nationals to obtain visas from consulates and security clearance for boys and men aged between 16 and 50. Some Sudanese, Eritrean and Syrian nationals were barred from entry at land borders and at least one asylum seeker was forcibly returned to Sudan for not having valid residency. Security forces arrested dozens of refugees and asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Syria and sub-Saharan African countries as well as Uyghurs from China for irregularly entering or staying in Egypt. In May, Alfred Djasnan, a Chadian refugee, journalist and president of the African Refugees Rights Initiative, was deported to Rwanda. He had been arrested after sub-Saharan Africans protested against their living conditions in front of the UNHCR office in 6 October city. 1. “Egypt: Quash convictions in torture-tainted grossly unfair mass trial of 2019 protesters”, 23 February 2. “Egypt: Immediately release prominent dissident on trial for online expression”, 14 September 3. “Egypt: Independent civil society organizations at risk of closure after NGO deadline passes”, 12 April 4. “Egypt: Tortured son of opposition figure held incommunicado: Anas al-Beltagy”, 29 March 159