CAIRO: EU, which is trying to stem the flow of illegal migrants, announced a 7.4 billion euro ($8 billion) package of loans, grants and energy cooperation with cash-strapped Egypt.
It will include billions in loans over the coming years and is aimed at increasing Egyptian energy imports to help Europe “move away from Russian gas” amid the Ukraine war, a senior European Commission official told reporters.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen – who was expected in Cairo, joined by representatives of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece and Italy – was due to sign deals with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi later in the day.
Egypt, mired in a painful economic crisis, borders war-torn Libya and two ongoing conflicts – the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Sudanese war between the regular armed forces and paramilitary rapid support units.
“Egypt is a critical country for Europe today and for the coming days,” said a commission official who did not want to be named, pointing to “Egypt’s important position in a very difficult neighborhood that borders Libya, Sudan and Gaza. Passport”.
According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration, Egypt already hosts around nine million migrants and refugees, including four million Sudanese and 1.5 million Syrians.
An EU official said the agreement includes steps related to “security, cooperation in the fight against terrorism and protection of borders, especially the southern ones” with Sudan.
The deal follows other controversial deals the EU has struck with Libya, Tunisia and Mauritania to stem the flow of illegal migrants across the Mediterranean.
Their aim is to limit arrivals at a time of growing anti-immigrant rhetoric in Europe and the growth of right-wing populist political parties in several EU countries.
Human Rights Watch said it had documented “arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees by Egyptian authorities”.
HRW also again criticized what it called the EU’s “cash-and-carry approach to controlling migration” which it said “strengthens authoritarian rulers while betraying human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and activists whose work involves great personal risk”.
Heavily indebted Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, is in dire need of financial aid as it overcomes a severe economic crisis marked by rapid inflation.
The International Monetary Fund this month approved an $8 billion loan package after Cairo introduced a flexible exchange rate and raised interest rates.
The agreement with the EU includes five billion euros in loans, 1.8 billion euros in investments and hundreds of millions for bilateral projects, including migration.
Egypt’s economy, dominated by businesses linked to the military and focused on expensive infrastructure megaprojects, has been hit hard by a series of recent economic shocks.
These include the impact of the Covid pandemic on tourism, higher food prices during the Ukraine war and attacks by Yemen’s Huthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea, which have reduced Suez Canal revenues.
Egypt’s foreign debt has risen to $164.7 billion, and the cost of servicing it is expected to reach $42 billion this year.