Eight Egyptians from the southern governorate of Aswan who were forcibly disappeared in 2018 have quietly reappeared and reunited with their families on 10 May, in an unexpected development, The New Arab's Arabic edition reported on Wednesday.
The men were arrested in October and November 2018 and vanished without ever being brought before a judicial authority. Rights groups say they were held incommunicado for nearly six years, with no formal charges or legal process.
The detainees, who worked in various professions including as drivers and sales staff, were released without any official statement from the Egyptian government. Their return was described as discreet and unannounced.
The Shehab Centre for Human Rights warned that those released may still face future reprisals from the authorities.
One of the detainees has been identified as 44-year-old Jaafar Abdulaziz, who was abducted outside his home on 30 October 2018.
Rights organisations have repeatedly sounded the alarm over Egypt's widespread use of enforced disappearances, though the true scale remains difficult to document due to state restrictions and surveillance.
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms has recorded at least 4,253 such cases, with the highest number in 2019 at 927 cases, followed by 816 in 2015 and 691 in 2016.
In a 2023 report, the Shehab Centre said that 2,465 political opponents remain forcibly disappeared, while at least 65 people have been unlawfully killed by the state.
Amnesty International also noted last year that dozens continue to be disappeared, highlighting ongoing patterns of arbitrary detention, torture, and unfair trials.
While rights groups welcomed the release of the Aswan detainees, they stressed that the fate of thousands of others remains unknown.
They urged Egyptian authorities to meet their constitutional and international obligations, calling enforced disappearances a flagrant violation of human rights.
A recent study by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances submitted to the Committee for Justice in May 2024 found a troubling link between Egypt's election cycles and enforced disappearances.
It suggested that disappearances were often used as a tool of intimidation to silence dissent and suppress political activity during sensitive periods.