The Sisi republic

"There are more than 60 people detained inside, most of them Palestinian Syrians, half of them children under ten, their faces spotted with mosquito bites. On the third floor there’s a pile of sand with parts of a broken toilet sticking out of it. A dirty blanket folded over a string separates the women and children’s quarters from the men’s. The detainees were all arrested for trying to get to Europe by boat. Some were captured on Nelson’s Island, where they were dumped after a dispute with a smuggler. Some were aboard a boat on which a man and a woman were shot by the Egyptian coastguard on 17 September. The rest were arrested at a coffee shop on the beach, before having even set foot on the water. It’s far from clear they’ve done anything illegal. ‘There’s nothing in the law called “their intention was to immigrate illegally”,’ says Suzan Nada, a lawyer with the Egyptian Centre for Social and Economic Rights who has been working with refugees in detention. The courts agree: the public prosecutor acquitted all the detainees of any wrongdoing. But the Interior Ministry insists that they remain in detention, for reasons ‘linked to national security’. The police admit the conditions are inhumane, but say there is nothing they can do." (thanks Yusuf)