International labour office geneva

Controlling irregular migration 

Controlling irregular migration is a priority, especially after recent catastrophes 

involving a large number of irregular migrants who died on their journey, or were subject 

to inhuman conditions, shown explicitly in the media. These catastrophes are not the 

responsibility of one particular ministry. According to the officials interviewed, the 

responsibility is shared among different ministries, including Defence, Interior, Education 

and Investment. In other words, it is a phenomenon affecting the whole of Egyptian 

society. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for one or two ministries to handle the issue 

since the roots of the problem are the responsibility of many ministries. The new project, 

jointly implemented by the Ministry of Housing and New Urban Communities and the 

Vocational Education and Training Reform Project (which follows the Ministry of Trade 

and Industry), that will start training Egyptian labour in 20 different professions in the field 

of construction using international criteria, will increase the chances of potential migrants 

having legal working contracts in the EU. This type of project is of great importance, 

provided that it is correctly implemented. However, making irregular migration harder, by 

putting sanctions into the law against brokers, is being considered. Massive media 

campaigns are also being undertaken among potential communities vulnerable to irregular 

migration in order to raise their awareness of the risks associated with it. Border controls 

are also being strengthened. The recent MME efforts, by opening up six new migration 

information centres in different governorates, represent an effort that should be recognized 

and replicated.  

Related to the issue of irregular migration, the GOE considers the legalization of 

irregular migration, already existing in EU countries, as a major challenge. As for 

externalization of EU migration policy in this regard, the interviews revealed that the 

Egyptian point of view is not against it, but only agrees on what is relevant and beneficial 

to Egypt’s interests. For example, Egypt differed from Morocco in terms of the 

readmission agreement signed with Italy; where Morocco accepted that all irregular 

migrants from Morocco will return back there, Egypt agreed only to irregular migrants 

who are Egyptians returning. Morocco also accepted joint security forces to secure their 

borders, whereas Egypt viewed this as interference in its national sovereignty and only 

agreed on training of Egyptian authorities and providing them with technical assistance 

(e.g. Bio-metric technology to identify the nationality of irregular migrants).