The world, specifically the Middle East, is currently experiencing the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Hundreds of thousands have fled wars and armed political conflicts and migrated to neighbouring countries or to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea. These refugees are prey to many extremist organizations, smuggling mafias and drug dealers, who can easily take advantage of the refugees’ desperation and isolation.

The world, specifically the Middle East, is currently experiencing the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Hundreds of thousands have fled wars and armed political conflicts and migrated to neighbouring countries or to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea. These refugees are prey to many extremist organizations, smuggling mafias and drug dealers, who can easily take advantage of the refugees’ desperation and isolation.

Q. A., 42, is a Syrian who belongs to an armed jihadist organization. He was arrested earlier this year while transporting five tons of explosives in a truck in North Sinai Governorate. He is currently in prison awaiting trial.

“The charges were not fabricated; I actually did it,” says Q.A. “Back in Syria, I took up weapons against Bashar (Assad) since he started shooting mujahedeen of the Syrian opposition who were trying to free Syria from his tyranny. Then, a military coup took place in Egypt, a brutal war started against Islam, and genocide was carried out against our Muslim Brothers.”

Q.A. moved to Egypt to join the mujahedeen and first stayed in Sinai to collect weapons and then to wage Jihad. “We planned for an earth-shattering jihadist operation against Egyptian forces in Sinai,” he says. “I managed to collect five tonnes of explosives, and on the night of the operation, we put them in trucks. However, before we started moving, armed forces attacked us. They surely had a tip from a traitor among us. They fought against us, but we were very few so they were able to defeat and arrest us.”

Q.A. says he was beaten, electrocuted and burnt during interrogation in a security facility. “I did not deny what I did and I will not deny it in court,” he says. “I was practicing jihad for the sake of Allah and for the victory of Islam. Soon, we all will be liberated and will avenge our brothers in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Libya, Iraq, Burma and all the Islamic World.”

M.A., a 32-year-old Palestinian woman, arrived in Egypt with her family in early 2012, fleeing a blockade, wars and difficult economic conditions in Gaza. “We lived problem-free for a long time until terrorist operations began in Sinai,” she says. “The media started talking about Palestinians’ role in these attacks and people began looking at us differently. They blamed us for all the bloodshed in Sinai. We moved from one house to the next because people would not accept having us as neighbors. Everyone now considers us to be terrorists just because we are Palestinians.”

The situation worsened after June 30, 2013. “We were threatened with deportation although we were refugees,” says M.A. “I felt injustice and I grew intolerant of the situation, especially when Palestinian friends of mine were arrested on the pretext of being residing illegally in Egypt. They were subjected to much humiliation in Egyptian prisons. I hated the Egyptian regime that observed neither us nor its own people. I shared with Egyptians their pain and protested with them to overthrow the regime in hopes of a new regime that would justly govern, take care of its people and us, and bring my friends out of prison.”

M.A. was arrested during an opposition protest in Nasr City late 2013 and she spent a night in a police station where she was verbally humiliated by the officers and severely beaten by female criminal detainees. She was referred to prosecution and then to court on charges of joining a terrorist organization and vandalism.

J.Z., a 38-year old Sudanese refugee, fled to Egypt without his family during the pre-separation Sudanese wars, and was able to acquire a residence permit, a house and a job. “I was often harassed and ridiculed both from community members and civil servants, but I tolerated them,” he says. “Following the January revolution, the situation deteriorated and I lost my job when the employer decided to sack workers for financial problems. I then found a new job in an exchange company owned by a business leader at a time when I was threatened with deportation because of my inability to pay bribes to legalise my residency.”

The company’s owner became aware of J.Z.’s problems so he offered to pay the expenses of renewing his residence and asked his friends in both the ministries of interior and foreign affairs to help legalise his stay in Egypt. However, the owner asked J.Z. to help him execute illegal exchange activities in exchange for a certain ratio of the profits. “I accepted and worked with him for two and a half years, but I was arrested last May,” says J.Z. “My employer managed to resolve the case without being referred to court. I do not regret what I did because I had no other choice. Many Egyptians work in the black market currency exchange. Some like me do it to make ends meet, while others do it to increase their wealth.”

T. A, a 28-year-old Libyan refugee, arrived in Egypt in 2011 escaping the conflict between the armed opposition and Gaddafi battalions. He stayed a period of time in an African refugee camp in Salloum area and then with the help of an Egyptian he was able to reach Cairo. “This person found accommodation for me in a slum away from the police,” he says. “There, I worked in a restaurant where I was humiliated and ridiculed by my co-workers until I got fed up and quit. One of my neighbors offered me a job and said: ‘No one can humiliate you because they will need you.’ Basically, he asked me to work as a drug dealer. Indeed, I was respected by my clients until one day someone asked me for a large amount of hashish. On my way to his place, however, the police stopped me, found the drugs and arrested me. I was severely beaten during my arrest and in the police station. I will soon be prosecuted and I have no idea what is going to happen to me.”

Mahmud Abu Azaim, a sociology professor in the Faculty of Literature in Cairo University, says refugees, like anyone else, are affected by the surrounding circumstances. “They are more vulnerable because they have come from dangerous areas,” says Azaim. “They have fled wars in hopes of finding a safe life and starting with a clean slate, but the community tightens its grip on them.”

Azaim argues that some refugees have resisted pressure and stuck to their principles despite their need for moral and material aid. Others however have succumbed to temptation and agreed to break the law, claiming that what they have been through is reason enough. A few others have come to Egypt with militant ideas and found the country an open stage to apply them. “The situation does not only concern refugees, but also society en masse because refugees live in it and are affected by it,” says Azaim.

*Names of interviewees have been altered for their own safety.