Urban Refugee Protection in Cairo: The Role of Communication, Information and Technology

The sharing of information about asylum – its rules, rights, processes and privileges – is an inherent part of refugee protection and service provision. With the rise of new technologies, research and policy has paid increasing attention to the use and potentials of changing channels of communication. Refugees increasingly live in urban settings in the global south. Yet little is known about how communication about asylum happens in such cities, or what kinds of issues need to be navigated to effectively deliver information to diverse and dispersed communities within them.

Cairo, Egypt, with its large population of refugees from Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia amongst others, is a significant case. Over nearly a decade, demonstrations by refugees at UNHCR have thrown up issues of urban refugee protection, and the political and civil unrest of 2011-12 has presented further problems. The Arab Spring brought communication’s importance in Cairo to a global stage. This paper explores circulation of information about asylum in the city, barriers that have blocked and capacities that might expand its way, based on ethnographic research in Cairo in 2011-12.

The research explores two related themes. First, what have been the dynamics, gaps and constraints of asylum-related information delivery in Cairo, and what impact have they had on refugee protection and service provision? Second, how are communication channels being used to provide information to refugees and asylum seekers, and what capacities and cautions should be considered for each? The paper first reviews related research, project methodology and Cairo’s refugee context. Then it attends to the two research themes, highlighting the role of information in refugee protection, the potential for new and old technologies to help, and the importance of attention to matters of clarity, language and audience.