Egypt (Somali diaspora)

How many Somalis live in Egypt?

At the end of 2025, UNHCR recorded 3,960 Somali refugees and 8,837 Somali asylum seekers in Egypt (UNHCR Refugee Data Finder API, Egypt, 1990 to 2025). The number of asylum seekers more than doubled from 3,909 a year earlier (UNHCR API).

The UN's birthplace count is much higher. UN DESA estimated 50,036 people born in Somalia living in Egypt in 2024 (UN DESA, International Migrant Stock 2024). That estimate includes students, workers and families who are not registered as refugees.

Somalis are a small group among Egypt's refugees. More than 1.1 million refugees and asylum seekers of all nationalities were registered with UNHCR in Egypt by May 2026, most from Sudan (Human Rights Watch, 7 July 2026).

How long have Somalis been in Egypt?

A small number of Somalis lived in Cairo before the war, including students and diplomats with their families (Swiss Forum for Migration Studies (SFM), 2006). UNHCR counted 996 Somali refugees in Egypt in 1990 and 6,066 in 1993 (UNHCR API).

By the mid-2000s Somalis were Egypt's third-largest refugee group, after Palestinians and Sudanese, with about 4,000 registered (SFM, 2006). Most of them had arrived after 1999 (SFM, 2006). The count stayed near 6,000 from 2009 to 2014 (UNHCR API).

How did Somalis come to Egypt?

Many came after living somewhere else first. In the 2006 study, the most common earlier homes were Saudi Arabia and Kenya, then Ethiopia, Yemen and Libya (SFM, 2006). People from Saudi Arabia cited lack of legal status and schooling for their children, while people from Libya cited abuse by employers (SFM, 2006).

Entry to Egypt needed a visa and passport, often arranged through middlemen or relatives already there (SFM, 2006). A newer trend was Somali families with Western citizenship moving to Cairo, about 200 of them, to raise children in a familiar culture (SFM, 2006).

For the wider routes, see Migration routes and Libya (Somali diaspora).

Where in Cairo do Somalis live?

Most live in Nasr City and Ard el-Lewa (SFM, 2006). In Nasr City the main cluster is in Hay el Ashr, near the airport, around Swissry A and B streets (Miranda, Refugees in Towns, 2018). Somalis first settled there for lower rents (Miranda, 2018).

Housing is crowded. Somalis often share bedrooms, sometimes three people to a room (Miranda, 2018).

What work do Somalis in Egypt do?

Refugees in Egypt need a work permit, which is costly and hard to get, so most work informally (SFM, 2006). Their main income comes from remittances, small businesses and help from the community (SFM, 2006).

Some Somalis work for hawala money transfer companies or as waiters in cafés (Miranda, 2018). Educated Somalis tutor children of families who returned from the United States, Europe and Canada (Miranda, 2018).

The Hay el Ashr cluster had five Somali cafés, three tailors, a grocery, a barber and a community centre in 2017 (Miranda, 2018). A community observer said these were paid for with hawala earnings, not aid (Miranda, 2018).

Can Somali children go to school in Egypt?

A 2000 government decree allowed Somali refugee children free places in public schools, but it was not applied regularly (SFM, 2006). Many children went to schools run by Al-Azhar, which teach religious and secular subjects to non-Egyptian Muslims (SFM, 2006).

Schools often ask for a letter from the Somali embassy, which needs three Somali passport holders to confirm a child's identity (Miranda, 2018). The community centre in Hay el Ashr runs Somali language classes for young children (Miranda, 2018).

Who speaks for Somalis in Egypt?

• The Somali community centre in Hay el Ashr is the main named community body (Miranda, 2018).
• The Embassy of Somalia in Cairo issues the identity letters that schools and offices ask for (Miranda, 2018).
• Researchers: a UNHCR working paper by Mulki Al-Sharmani studied how Somali refugees in Cairo make a living and keep family and community ties (Al-Sharmani, UNHCR, via ALNAP).

What do Somalis in Egypt face now?

• A new asylum law: Law No. 164 of 2024, signed in December 2024, moves refugee status decisions from UNHCR, which had made them since 1954, to a government committee (HRW, 2026). Its bylaws were published on 21 May 2026 and take effect three months later (HRW, 2026).
• Arrests: from late 2025, Egyptian authorities arrested and deported refugees, many over expired residency permits, mostly people from Sudan and South Sudan (HRW, 2026).
• Residency queues: permits must be renewed every year, and some appointments are set as late as 2028 (HRW, 2026).
• No path to citizenship: refugees are not eligible to become Egyptian citizens (SFM, 2006).

For refugee documents, see Refugee papers and status.

How are Somalis in Egypt tied to home?

Many families in Cairo live on money sent by relatives elsewhere (SFM, 2006). Somalia's records show 55 migrants returning from Egypt between 2020 and 2023 (Somalia National Bureau of Statistics, Migration Statistics Report 2024). Worldwide, Somalis abroad sent home US$3,134 million in 2025, about 24% of the economy (Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025).

Related pages

• Somali diaspora hub
• Why and how Somalis left
• Life after leaving
• Somali refugees by the numbers
• Libya (Somali diaspora)
• Sudan (Somali diaspora)
• Yemen (Somali diaspora)

Sources

1. UNHCR. Refugee Data Finder API, Somalia to Egypt, 1990 to 2025. api.unhcr.org. Checked 2026-11-12.
2. UN DESA Population Division. "International Migrant Stock 2024." 2025. un.org. Checked 2026-11-12.
3. Human Rights Watch. "Egypt: Refugees, Asylum Seekers Arrested, Deported." 7 July 2026. hrw.org. Checked 2026-11-12.
4. Moret, J., Baglioni, S. and Efionayi-Mäder, D. "The Path of Somali Refugees into Exile," with the Egypt case study by M. Al-Sharmani. SFM Studies 46, 2006. unine.ch. Checked 2026-11-12.
5. Miranda, P. "Getting by on the Margins: Sudanese and Somali Refugees. Cairo, Egypt." Refugees in Towns, Tufts University, 2018. refugees-in-towns.squarespace.com. Checked 2026-11-12.
6. Al-Sharmani, M. "Livelihood and diasporic identity constructions of Somali refugees in Cairo." UNHCR working paper. alnap.org. Checked 2026-11-12.
7. Somalia National Bureau of Statistics. "Migration Statistics Report," first edition. 2024. nbs.gov.so. Checked 2026-11-12.
8. Central Bank of Somalia. "Annual Report 2025." 2026. centralbank.gov.so. Checked 2026-11-12.