Yemeni journalist and Nobel laureate Tawakul Karman was deported upon arriving at the Cairo International Airport by Egyptian authorities on Sunday, state news agency MENA reports.

Arriving with a friend at the Cairo airport on a flight from the Yemeni capital, Karman and was detained at the airport for a few hours, then sent back to Sanaa. Her friend was asked to leave with her.

The world-renowned Arab Spring activist – who voiced criticism for the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi by the military in July – learned upon arriving at the Cairo airport that her name had been added to airport security's no-entry list.

On her Twitter account Karman had published that she would be coming to Egypt and going on a solidarity visit to the pro-Morsi large five-week sit-in at Rabaa Al-Adawiya Square in northeast Cairo pressing for Morsi's reinstatement.

Karman is the first Arab woman and youngest ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. She is an internationally-recognised figure of the 2011 Yemeni uprising.