Brussels, 27/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - European People's Party (EPP) leader Joseph Daul and chairman of the European Parliament (EP) foreign affairs committee Elmar Brok (EPP) have called on Egyptian authorities to allow US citizens working for two non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, to be allowed to travel freely outside Egypt. “We will use every opportunity to raise this issue and put pressure on the Egyptian Supreme Council to change its attitude and to put an immediate end to this deplorable treatment of foreign NGOs”, added the two men in a letter sent to the heads of the NGOs.
Daul and Brok also express their concern at the deterioration of the situation in which the organisations find themselves. “It seems that the situation for US and foreign NGOs in the country is not improving but rather the opposite”, they say, noting “the important and high quality work” carried out by the NGOs “in support of civil society in general”.
The Egyptian authorities, acting on the orders of the procurator general, have forbidden a number of US citizens working for NGOs to leave Cairo, US Under-Secretary of State for Human Rights Michael Posner said on Thursday 26 January. In December, searches were carried out in the premises of 17 NGOs as part of an investigation into “illegal foreign funding”. (CG/transl.rt)