Egyptian-German researcher and founder of Mayadin Al-Tahrir NGO Atef Botros was detained and prevented from entering the country Friday night. According to sources monitoring the situation, he has been questioned and ordered to return to Germany.

Botros was travelling from Germany to Egypt when he was denied entry to the country.

Reporter Walid El-Sheikh, who is following the situation closely with Botros in the airport, said Botros is “striking” in his place of confinement at the airport, to protest his forced detention and deportation.

El-Sheikh added that Botros was informed at the airport that he was denied entry to Egypt “for life.”

Authorities are yet to release a statement on the reasons behind preventing Botros’s entry to the country. Botros works as a professor in Germany’s Marburg University Centre for Near and Middle East Studies.

His NGO aims to enhance the capacities of marginalised groups in Egypt, in particular the women and youth of Matariya district.

In December 2015, Egyptian researcher and journalist Ismail Alexandrani was detained at the airport after his arrival from Germany. Alexandrani is currently detained pending trial on charges of “broadcasting false news” and joining the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.