Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Saturday that his government has rejected the establishment of refugee camps in Egypt. Shoukry made the remarks during his meeting with European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, who is currently visiting Cairo. Shoukry noted that Egypt has been successful in dealing with irregular migration, indicating that the number of irregular Egyptian migrants in the Mediterranean has recently declined. No ship has been detected leaving the Egyptian coast for Europe since September 2016, Shoukry said. The European official underlined the European Union’s commitment to cooperating with Egypt in combating irregular migration, saying that a sum of $60 million has been allocated by the EU for the first phase of this cooperation.

Source: Egypt Independent December 17, 2017 12:32 UTC