Why do Arabic governments treat their citizens like livestock/animals?

[tyclegg]

Very sorry for this news.

I did some more research, and despite some people's negative comments in this thread, you were right to be careful.

Lebanon Immigration Detention Profile | Global Detention Project

Here are a couple of organizations that deal specifically with issues such as yours (especially the first one) and that might be able to help or counsel you.

http://www.frontiersruwad.org

About Us – Ajem

Be careful and keep us updated. You should tell you sister or girlfriend about this thread so they can notify us in case you run into any trouble (which hopefully will not be needed).

And remember you have friends here, despite our limited ability to help. We won't turn our back on you, so don't despair

I'm sorry I just noticed this reply, thank you again! I'll check out the links you've provided and I'll see what I can do!

 

[Indie]

I see, so how can I get in touch with the UNHCR?

And btw I just emailed LIFE and told them the short version of my story, I expressed to them that I'm in need of guidance on what to do next, hopefully they'll read it and reply soon..

Here is the UNHCR info. You should also contact the other two organizations, especially Frontiers Ruwad.
----------------------------------------------------

The UNHCR Representation in Lebanon
Khater Bldg, Dr. Philippe Hitti Street, Ramlet El Baida, (Behind Spinneys Supermarket Jnah), BEIRUT, Lebanon

Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 11-7332, Riad El Solh, Beirut, Lebanon

Telephone:
961 1 849 201

Facsimile:
961 1 849 211

Email:
[email protected]

Working Hours:
Monday: 08:00 - 16:00
Tuesday: 08:00 - 16:00
Wednesday: 08:00 - 16:00
Thursday: 08:00 - 16:00
Friday: 08:00 - 16:00

Public Holidays:
14 April 2017, good friday
17 April 2017, easter

 

[tyclegg]

Here is the UNHCR info. You should also contact the other two organizations, especially Frontiers Ruwad.
----------------------------------------------------

The UNHCR Representation in Lebanon
Khater Bldg, Dr. Philippe Hitti Street, Ramlet El Baida, (Behind Spinneys Supermarket Jnah), BEIRUT, Lebanon

Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 11-7332, Riad El Solh, Beirut, Lebanon

Telephone:
961 1 849 201

Facsimile:
961 1 849 211

Email:
[email protected]

Working Hours:
Monday: 08:00 - 16:00
Tuesday: 08:00 - 16:00
Wednesday: 08:00 - 16:00
Thursday: 08:00 - 16:00
Friday: 08:00 - 16:00

Public Holidays:
14 April 2017, good friday
17 April 2017, easter

Thank you so so much again, you're bothering to gather all this info for me and providing it in details for my sake, I am really moved by how dedicated you've been time and time again to trying to help with this situation, I really appreciate this more than you can imagine!

I'm reading this article right now btw Lebanon Immigration Detention Profile | Global Detention Project
It's really terrifying.. it seems like mostly people who entered illegally are getting the harshest punishments, thankfully I've entered with a tourist visa and it's 110% legal, but my continues presence in the country after the expiration of that visa is the problem..although it seems like it's more acceptable than entering illegally, I still worry since i've been present in the country for over 2 years illegally.. I'll continue reading this article and then I'll contact all the organizations you've suggested, thanks again!

 

[Indie]

Thank you so so much again, you're bothering to gather all this info for me and providing it in details for my sake, I am really moved by how dedicated you've been time and time again to trying to help with this situation, I really appreciate this more than you can imagine!

I'm reading this article right now btw Lebanon Immigration Detention Profile | Global Detention Project
It's really terrifying.. it seems like mostly people who entered illegally are getting the harshest punishments, thankfully I've entered with a tourist visa and it's 110% legal, but my continues presence in the country after the expiration of that visa is the problem..although it seems like it's more acceptable than entering illegally, I still worry since i've been present in the country for over 2 years illegally.. I'll continue reading this article and then I'll contact all the organizations you've suggested, thanks again!

You're very welcome my dear. It's really nothing. I wish I could do more.

As for the article, I did not intend to terrify you or make you paranoid, but simply careful in how you proceed.

 

[Dark Angel]

@tyclegg you do realize i hope that egyptians can get an entry visa to Lebanon upon arrival, you could have gotten one normally when you came to Lebanon without any issues and fixed your legal status. additionally you can renew your expired passport from the egyptian consulate. i do not think they will concern themselves that much with the visa process. once your passport is renewed simply head to the amn el 3am and tell them your story and request the visa for your stay in Lebanon, they will give you one, they will not throw you in jail.

you will not be able to work legaly in Lebanon because this will be more like a tourist visa. but you will be able to move about and you may even find some people who may hire you under the table.

 

[tyclegg]

@tyclegg you do realize i hope that egyptians can get an entry visa to Lebanon upon arrival, you could have gotten one normally when you came to Lebanon without any issues and fixed your legal status. additionally you can renew your expired passport from the egyptian consulate. i do not think they will concern themselves that much with the visa process. once your passport is renewed simply head to the amn el 3am and tell them your story and request the visa for your stay in Lebanon, they will give you one, they will not throw you in jail.

you will not be able to work legaly in Lebanon because this will be more like a tourist visa. but you will be able to move about and you may even find some people who may hire you under the table.

Thanks for the reply, but you got it all wrong, I DID enter with a tourist visa to Lebanon, I entered LEGALLY, so yeah I did get a normal visa.
And my passport ISN'T expired, it's still valid, till the year 2021.
I did ask about renewing my visa and they told me it's impossible, I need to leave the country, but I never got to take more details, this was months ago.
There is still a chance that I might go to jail.. I've been reading an article that @Indie have linked to in a previous reply, it states the laws in Lebanon on such issues and also talks about past cases of people who were in a similar situation as mine

 

[tyclegg]

UPDATE:

So my mom called el amn el 3am today, she told them my situation and they told her I have to pay $200 for every illegal year i've spent here, then she proceeded to ask the guy about whether I might go to jail or not, which he replied with "7sb wd3o mnshuf iza mn7bso aw la2" and he hung up in her face right after that..

SO, I can come up with the money I need to pay my fine, but I'm worried about the jail thing.. I feel that the "7sb wd3o" means that they WILL jail me but they don't wanna say it over the phone so I wouldn't be too scared to go to them... I'm really nervous, I don't wanna go to jail.. I can't go to jail! I don't wanna have a "criminal" record related to residence permits, it will make it extremely hard for me to travel to Europe if that time ever comes, not to mention that I can't waste more time, time is ticking and my future is slipping away, I don't wanna waste time in jail, even my mom wouldn't be able to handle the idea that her only son is IN JAIL..

Please, once again, if anyone has relatives or friends who work in Amn 3am, and could help me somehow, whether it comes to guidance or be my "wasta" I would really appreciate it, it's urgent, thank you.

 

[tyclegg]

UPDATE:

So my mom called the embassy again this morning and talked to the guy there who has information about expired residence permits for Egyptians, she told him exactly what the amn 3am guy told her yesterday, she then asked him about what should I do next..

She re-explained my story to him and turns out that they COULD HELP! turns out they misunderstood, they thought I had a residence permit and a "kafeel" and then my residence permit expired, when she explained to him that I entered with a tourist visa and that I never actually had an "eqame" he said that YES THEY CAN HELP ME TRAVEL AND PROTECT ME IN THAT CASE!

I'm glad that it all turned out to be miscommunication and nothing more.. but I'm not getting my hopes up very high since last time I got that happy it only ended up with me being disappointed the very next day..
So my mom is going to the embassy tomorrow to give them my passport and 2 photos of me again, she'll make sure to meet this residence permits guy personally and show him the passports and reexplain the situation in boring details and make sure 100% that they can help!

Wish me luck! this is great news! unless I get screwed over by the embassy again hopefully not though

 

[Indie]

@tyclegg , we haven't heard from you in a while. Hopefully everything is going alright. Give us an update if you see this

 

[tyclegg]

@tyclegg , we haven't heard from you in a while. Hopefully everything is going alright. Give us an update if you see this

Hello again sorry about that, I've been having problems with my internet connection
Nothing new happened yet, we reapplied for the deportation application a week ago and we're waiting for them to call us back when I get the greenlight to leave the country all I have to do now is sit tight and be patient I guess!

 

[tyclegg]

UPDATE:
So I arrived in Egypt yesterday.. Staying at a nice person's place that I met on Airbnb.. I guess I should be happy

 

[Indie]

UPDATE:
So I arrived in Egypt yesterday.. Staying at a nice person's place that I met on Airbnb.. I guess I should be happy

I'm so, so, happy that you're out and safe! Thank you for the update

And, you "shouldn't" feel any particular type of way. You've been through a lot, and have a whole new place to adjust to, and a life to build, and you might even move again. Your whole world has been turned upside down by a war, and other hardships, that weren't of your making. So...you will probably experience a lot of feelings, often contradictory, sometimes simultaneously.

Just remember that you can't control feelings. They come and go in waves. Give your life a purpose; focus on what you can do to improve it, one tiny step at a time; let those feelings come and go in the background; and, as difficult as it is, try to find joy in the mere fact of being alive, and the countless little things that make this world so wonderful.

I know it's difficult, but you can make it, I promise

 

[tyclegg]

I'm so, so, happy that you're out and safe! Thank you for the update

And, you "shouldn't" feel any particular type of way. You've been through a lot, and have a whole new place to adjust to, and a life to build, and you might even move again. Your whole world has been turned upside down by a war, and other hardships, that weren't of your making. So...you will probably experience a lot of feelings, often contradictory, sometimes simultaneously.

Just remember that you can't control feelings. They come and go in waves. Give your life a purpose; focus on what you can do to improve it, one tiny step at a time; let those feelings come and go in the background; and, as difficult as it is, try to find joy in the mere fact of being alive, and the countless little things that make this world so wonderful.

I know it's difficult, but you can make it, I promise

Thank you for the positive words, and I'm sorry to everyone who's been following this thread for not updating it with what happened eventually.
I just got to Egypt about 2 weeks ago and I'm still confused and kinda lost and it's all happening too fast to be honest.

But I'm starting to grasp what's happening and I'm getting a hold of my self, so I decided to throw an update about what i've been up to.

So basically what happened was that I applied for "tr7il tw3i" in the Egyptian embassy in Beirut, a couple of weeks later the embassy contacted me and told me to go to "amn el dwle" at a certain date and a certain time.. So I didn't sleep that whole night fearing that I might miss the date, they even told me on the phone "if you miss this date then the embassy isn't responsible for you anymore, this is your only chance"
So I got there at around 6:20 AM and the guard in front of the building instantly knew why i was there, he was like "you're with the Egyptian embassy?" I said yeah and then he told me where I should stand and wait.

Long story short I stood there and more Egyptians starting arriving as well, there was 35 of us in total if I counted correctly.

at around 12 PM they started having us enter in groups of 10 at a time, when my turn came I entered and waited for a bit inside, they called my name and asked me some questions and they were ever so respectful to my surprise (they were screaming at the other's though, probably because they entered the country illegally, unlike how I entered with a legit visa)

So after the interview they told us they'll contact us very soon,
A week later I got an sms from the embassy saying that our flight is 4 days from now and we have to book a flight on trip #710 and we can't miss it, it should be that trip in particular, we should also be at the airport at 7 AM that day (the flight takes off at 12 PM)

So I started panicking since I wasn't expecting things to move forward this quickly, I didn't even know where I'm gonna be living when I get to Egypt.

It then occurred to me to look for something to rent on Airbnb (for those who don't know, it's basically an app that helps you find a room to rent in someone's house) and I was extremely nervous about that part, since I would have to live with a person that I know nothing about.

But to my luck I found a married university professor that has an extra room in his apartment for rent, I contacted him and told him my basic story and he agreed to rent me the room!

Fast forward to 4 days later, I was in Egypt, I landed, grabbed a cab and went to this guy's house, he greeted me and offered to help me with anything I might need, he even agreed for me to stay at his place until I finish with my papers.

Right now I'm working on my army papers, basically a process I have to go through to prove that I'm the only son in the family so I wouldn't be forced to go to the army, that's my whole focus at the moment,
This guy I'm staying with helped me a lot with that so far, he went with me to all those government buildings where I should fix my papers (to my luck his house is right next to them) and he stayed by my side this whole time and I couldn't have been any luckier.

If it wasn't for this guy I'd be lost in Egypt right now and I wouldn't have known where to start from when it comes to my papers.

Right now my goal is to finish the army papers -> renew my passport -> off to Sweden

But it's not gonna be an easy road, since I found out its near impossible to get a visa to Sweden as an Egyptian citizen

But I found a way that can get me there without a visa.. it's gonna be a bit costy, so meanwhile I'm also trying to gather up money.

I also found a job in a company similar to DHL, in their call center division, but it's in another city that is an hour away, so I'm gonna have to finish up my papers in Cairo before I can move there and take the job.

so yeah! things are moving forward finally after 3 freakin years i feel like I'm reborn again or something!

 

[Indie]

Thank you for the positive words, and I'm sorry to everyone who's been following this thread for not updating it with what happened eventually.
I just got to Egypt about 2 weeks ago and I'm still confused and kinda lost and it's all happening too fast to be honest.

But I'm starting to grasp what's happening and I'm getting a hold of my self, so I decided to throw an update about what i've been up to.

So basically what happened was that I applied for "tr7il tw3i" in the Egyptian embassy in Beirut, a couple of weeks later the embassy contacted me and told me to go to "amn el dwle" at a certain date and a certain time.. So I didn't sleep that whole night fearing that I might miss the date, they even told me on the phone "if you miss this date then the embassy isn't responsible for you anymore, this is your only chance"
So I got there at around 6:20 AM and the guard in front of the building instantly knew why i was there, he was like "you're with the Egyptian embassy?" I said yeah and then he told me where I should stand and wait.

Long story short I stood there and more Egyptians starting arriving as well, there was 35 of us in total if I counted correctly.

at around 12 PM they started having us enter in groups of 10 at a time, when my turn came I entered and waited for a bit inside, they called my name and asked me some questions and they were ever so respectful to my surprise (they were screaming at the other's though, probably because they entered the country illegally, unlike how I entered with a legit visa)

So after the interview they told us they'll contact us very soon,
A week later I got an sms from the embassy saying that our flight is 4 days from now and we have to book a flight on trip #710 and we can't miss it, it should be that trip in particular, we should also be at the airport at 7 AM that day (the flight takes off at 12 PM)

So I started panicking since I wasn't expecting things to move forward this quickly, I didn't even know where I'm gonna be living when I get to Egypt.

It then occurred to me to look for something to rent on Airbnb (for those who don't know, it's basically an app that helps you find a room to rent in someone's house) and I was extremely nervous about that part, since I would have to live with a person that I know nothing about.

But to my luck I found a married university professor that has an extra room in his apartment for rent, I contacted him and told him my basic story and he agreed to rent me the room!

Fast forward to 4 days later, I was in Egypt, I landed, grabbed a cab and went to this guy's house, he greeted me and offered to help me with anything I might need, he even agreed for me to stay at his place until I finish with my papers.

Right now I'm working on my army papers, basically a process I have to go through to prove that I'm the only son in the family so I wouldn't be forced to go to the army, that's my whole focus at the moment,
This guy I'm staying with helped me a lot with that so far, he went with me to all those government buildings where I should fix my papers (to my luck his house is right next to them) and he stayed by my side this whole time and I couldn't have been any luckier.

If it wasn't for this guy I'd be lost in Egypt right now and I wouldn't have known where to start from when it comes to my papers.

Right now my goal is to finish the army papers -> renew my passport -> off to Sweden

But it's not gonna be an easy road, since I found out its near impossible to get a visa to Sweden as an Egyptian citizen

But I found a way that can get me there without a visa.. it's gonna be a bit costy, so meanwhile I'm also trying to gather up money.

I also found a job in a company similar to DHL, in their call center division, but it's in another city that is an hour away, so I'm gonna have to finish up my papers in Cairo before I can move there and take the job.

so yeah! things are moving forward finally after 3 freakin years i feel like I'm reborn again or something!

Awesome! Thanks for the update. I'm glad you found a good soul to help you out in these difficult first steps. Congrats on the job as well!

 

[tyclegg]

Awesome! Thanks for the update. I'm glad you found a good soul to help you out in these difficult first steps. Congrats on the job as well!

no, thank YOU and all the other members that offered their positivity at the time that I needed it most, without that positivity it would've been way harder to take that first step.
I'll keep updating every time something comes up all the way up to when I finally get to Sweden!

 

[Jo]

Awesome! Thanks for the update. I'm glad you found a good soul to help you out in these difficult first steps. Congrats on the job as well!

no, thank YOU and all the other members that offered their positivity at the time that I needed it most, without that positivity it would've been way harder to take that first step.
I'll keep updating every time something comes up all the way up to when I finally get to Sweden!

Couldnt be happier for you

Good luck in your new journey.

 

[tyclegg]

Couldnt be happier for you

Good luck in your new journey.

Thank you! I'll need all the luck in the world