Egypt Rejects Licenses for Eight US Non-Profits
Egypt’s government on Monday refused to grant operating licenses to eight US-linked civil society groups, including the nonprofit headed by former US President Jimmy Carter, in what appears to be a widening of the crackdown on foreign-funded NGOs.
The Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs, responsible for the registration of both local and foreign nonprofits, said the groups’ activities were deemed to be in “violation of Egypt’s sovereignty,” according to the Egypt’s state-run MENA news agency.
In echoes of a high-profile crackdown on foreign-funded NGOs earlier this year, the ministry said the organizations would “face serious legal action” if they continued to operate on Egyptian soil.
“The rejection of these organizations was not due to reasons pertaining to their slogans or the activities they said they planned to implement in Egypt,” an unnamed ministry official told MENA. “But after considering the mechanisms by which they intend to implement these activities the ministry felt that they were in conflict with the upholding of the state’s sovereignty “