REPORTING. "$42,000 to leave Gaza" : At the Egyptian border, a travel agency pays for the border crossing

To get to Egypt, many Gazans stranded in the enclave are forced to pay extravagant sums to Egyptian travel agencies to get them across the border.

Published on January 30, 2024 6:37 a.m. Updated on January 30, 2024 8:00 a.m

Reading time: 2 minutes

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid arrive in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, January 17, 2024. (-/AFP)

In Gaza, life has a very specific price… set by an Egyptian travel agent this weekend. This organization, together with others, proposes a legal exit from the Gaza Strip via the Egyptian border. This single exit door has previously been double locked, except for humanitarian or diplomatic operations. It is a service for the richest: the passage permit costs 4,600 euros. An obvious way to make money from war victims.

Assia is one of the Gazans who left the enclave thanks to her Egyptian passport. Since this weekend she has been hosting a Palestinian family in Cairo, but they had to pay a high price to leave Gaza: “There are five of them, they paid almost $42,000 to be able to leave. There they are.” waited almost a month for their name to appear.

“I don’t have this money in cash.”

This family went through an intermediary in Gaza. But this limit price has been official since Saturday evening: The Egyptian agency offers a price per adult and per child. In Rafah, Khaled is trying to collect money for a total of seven people: “They opened it up to the Palestinians, the price was $3,000.” [pour un adulte] and $1,500 for a child. The next day the price doubled. In my case that was $5,000. I'm trying to find money. I don't have this money in cash. Their procedure is complicated, you have to pay in Egypt.”

Despite the difficulties, a queue has been forming in Cairo for several days in front of the agency in question: Hala. They were close to the Egyptian secret service and paid entry and exit costs before the war. It therefore increased its prices and resumed its activities. Ahmed Benchemsi, Middle East advocacy director at Human Right Watch, recalls: “We had already published a report two years ago in which several Palestinians said that in order to leave through Rafah it was necessary to grease the paws of certain Egyptian officers . “The practice is not new.”

“But today, in our opinion, the situation is a hundred times, a thousand times worse. There are almost a million internally displaced people in Rafah,” said the Middle East advocacy director at Human Right Watch. A pure logic of supply and demand As press research suggests, it is conceivable that the price of bribes demanded by Egyptian officials has increased significantly. More and more Gazans want to leave the enclave. But the vast majority of them are destitute.