Is Egypt using passports to punish its opponents?
Egypt’s former vice president says he is having a difficult time renewing his passport.
Mohamed ElBaradei, Egypt’s former vice president, Nobel Peace laureate and former head of the UN’s Atomic Energy Agency, has said there should be “no confusion between citizenship rights and state policies”.
He is accusing the government of delaying issuing his passport for political reasons – and it is not just him.
Opposition figures and journalists say they are unable to renew their passports abroad.
The foreign ministry says Egyptians living in other countries need to return to Cairo for a renewal, but opposition figures say that could mean their immediate arrest.
Have passports become a political tool against Egypt’s opposition?
Presenter: Sami Zeidan
Guests:
Yehia Ghanem – Al Jazeera’s Middle East analyst
Saad Djebbar – international lawyer
Samia Harris – founding member of Democracy for Egypt