Of at least 25 child refugees being held, Youssef Aden has served far longer than the average detention period.<\/p>\n
by Patrick Strickland<\/p>\n
Campaigners have called on Egypt to immediately release a 17-year-old Somali refugee who has been held for nearly six months.<\/p>\n
Youssef Mohamed Aden was arrested in Egypt on July 6, 2015. A member of a small minority clan, he had fled home after his brother was killed by al-Shabab, an armed group linked to al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n
The UN agency for children, UNICEF, has identified at least 25 children among the 50 total documented refugees currently held in Egypt.<\/p>\n
“There is a noticeable decrease in the number of children in detention at this time of the year,” Ahmad Hafez, a child protection consultant with UNICEF, told Al Jazeera, adding that the total number “reaches to more than 160 children in detention” during summer months.<\/p>\n
“Most of these minors are usually unaccompanied, coming from the Horn of Africa, while Syrian children are usually with parents.”<\/p>\n
The average detention time for a child is between two weeks and a month, Hafez said.<\/p>\n
Aden, however, has been held for nearly six months.<\/p>\n
After being picked up by Egyptian police, he was placed in the Karmooz detention centre in Alexandria, according to a\u00a0new report\u00a0by the Sweden-based Centre for Refugee Solidarity.<\/p>\n
With no passport or identification documents to prove his nationality, Egyptian authorities have been unable to deport him.<\/p>\n