The agreement for the first 23 million-euro phase of the project was signed during a visit to Cairo by the EU's commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, Oliver Varhelyi.
The project aims to help Egypt's coast and border guards reduce irregular migration and human trafficking along its border.
The scheme also provides for the procurement of surveillance equipment such as search and rescue vessels, thermal cameras, and satellite positioning systems, according to an EU Commission document published this month.
From Jan. 1 to Oct. 28 this year 16,413 migrants arriving by boat in Italy declared themselves to be Egyptian, making them the second largest group behind Tunisians, according to data published by Italy's interior ministry.
In 2021 more than 26,500 Egyptians were stopped at the Libyan border, according to the EU Commission document.
Since late 2016, irregular migration to Europe from the Egypt's northern coast has slowed sharply. However, migration of Egyptians across Egypt's long desert border with Libya and from Libya's Mediterranean coast to Europe has been on the rise, diplomats say.
Egypt is likely to experience "intensified flows" of migrants in the medium to long term due to regional instability, climate change, demographic shifts and lack of economic opportunities, the document says.
