On Monday, TV channel Sada El-Balad scrubbed a significant portion of its flagship program Ala Mas’ouliyati, following “outside instructions” to censor an uncharacteristic attack by host Ahmed Moussa. The deleted 30-minute segment featured the pro-government host leveling sharp criticism at the Haya Karima Foundation over its recent partnership with the UNHCR to support refugees.
The incident marks a rare public rift between a prominent state-aligned media voice and a flagship presidential initiative. Two informed sources at the channel told Al Manassa that management was told to pull the footage from social media and digital archives immediately after the live broadcast.
‘Integration.. for whom?!’
“Yesterday, I read a statement between the Haya Karima Foundation and an international organization regarding the refugees we have here… the issue of integration,” Moussa said in the deleted segment. “Naturally, a statement like this causes distress. Why? Because we say these people are here for a temporary period, not for life. Some of their countries have stabilized, and those whose countries are stable should go back.”
He continued: “Especially since we are facing an economic crisis and difficult circumstances. No matter what the world gives in aid, it amounts to nothing compared to what the Egyptian state provides.”
Moussa focused on the economic cost of hosting refugees, claiming: “I’m talking about 10 million; we have 10 million refugees. I won’t call them ‘guests’—the real term is ‘refugees.’” He added, “By the way, if these 10 million returned to their countries, a very big crisis would be solved. Look at how much we spend on them… $10 billion more or less? At least that much, certainly.”
Continuing his attack, Moussa asserted that refugees share Egypt’s water quota at a time of scarcity due to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), in addition to sharing “our food and drink.”
“How much do we pay for wheat? How much do we import it for? How much is a barrel of oil today? How much do I import a cubic meter of gas for? We pay our lifeblood for electricity and energy,” he said. “How much do we spend on water and power stations, the monorail, and... we pay our lifeblood!”
Closing the segment that the channel later pulled, he took a final aim at the presidential initiative: “Haya Karima comes out and says we’ll do integration… for whom? Aren’t our own people more deserving of help! Haya Karima was made for Egypt, made for the Egyptian people, not for foreigners. It’s called ‘Decent Life’; when this project was launched, it was launched for the Egyptian countryside… for the people.”
Moussa’s rant against refugees followed a broader wave of negative online reactions to the news, which included calls to stop donating to Haya Karima. Other media figures, including TV and radio host and MP Youssef El-Hosseiny, also voiced criticism. The backlash led the Haya Karima Foundation to disable comments on its original post regarding the integration program.
Details of the deletion
A source from the program’s team told Al Manassa that Moussa concluded the first part of the episode containing the attack by going to a commercial break, intending to return and continue his discussion on Haya Karima.
However, according to the source, who requested anonymity, his return to the live broadcast was delayed by approximately 45 minutes. During this time, recorded reports were aired instead of resuming the segment. “Before the break, he said he would continue talking about Haya Karima, but he was delayed, and we received instructions to air reports about Sham El-Nessim celebrations in various governorates,” the source said.
A second source in Sada El-Balad’s social media department told Al Manassa that the deletion was based on “outside instructions” from an unknown source. “The decision to delete came from outside the channel… because Moussa spoke out and hit hard. We also received instructions immediately after to delete the video from the channel’s pages.”
The videos deleted from Ahmed Moussa's program because of his attack on the Haya Karima initiativeRegarding why the video appeared on social media and then vanished, the source explained that the social media team clips and posts content in real-time as the broadcast happens.
Al Manassa confirmed that the refugee-related segment was removed from the full episode uploaded daily to YouTube. Clips titled “Haya Karima is for Egyptians, not refugees.. Ahmed Moussa loses his temper over Haya Karima initiative” and “We have an economic crisis.. Ahmed Moussa opens fire on Haya Karima initiative” were also deleted.
Foreign grants
Last Thursday, representatives from the UNHCR in Egypt and the Haya Karima Foundation held an introductory meeting to discuss cooperation in integrating refugees into developmental initiatives and economic empowerment programs.
Nour Khalil, director of the Refugees Platform in Egypt (RPE), told Al Manassa that the project is currently limited to preliminary discussions and has not reached the stage of executive decisions, suggesting it was “media-inflated.”
Khalil criticized the attacks by Moussa and others, noting that such initiatives are not funded by the state treasury. Instead, they are funded through foreign grants allocated to the UNHCR and redirected through partnerships with local entities—the standard operating procedure for UNHCR programs in Egypt.
Refugees in Egypt have recently faced increasingly unstable conditions amid organized social media campaigns targeting them. In February, the Ministry of Interior launched detention campaigns against Syrians without valid residency permits during street inspections and at security checkpoints.
The RPE reported an “unprecedented escalation” in official policies and practices toward refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants between late December 2025 and end January 2026.
