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Mr. Prime Minister Who will stop the trespassing on the Egyptian shores and lands?
The people and the members of the local councils of the city of Edko presented many complaints to the authorities urging them to stop the trespassing and the confiscating of the lands and the shores of the city…but nobody in Egypt listens. The total area of the shore which is about 1800 acres was confiscated, and only 400 acres were left from it which are considered the only vent left for the people of the city and the sole means of income for the fishermen whom their number is more than ten thousand fishermen…but the governorate officials are currently making procedures to give the land to businessmen to establish companies on it, without giving any consideration to the people of Edko or its shores which belong to the people and the coming generations. At the same time, the officials responsible for the lake of Edko are offering the remaining areas of the lake, which do not exceed a small number of acres, for sale or rent after they sold and rented all the parts of the lake which were more than twenty thousand acres…despite the decisions and statements of the president of the republic and the ministers which recommended that the shores be preserved and that no trespassing be made on the natural resources …but despite that, these recommendations were ignored and land was allocated for the establishment of a gas liquidating company… so that the sovereignty of the law and the rights of the citizens to a clean environment and a decent living standard continue to be violated.
The complaints that the LCHR received confirm that the confiscating of the remaining 400 acres of the shores of Edko will prevent more than ten thousand families from practicing their work in fishing, and deprive them from their sole means of income, regardless of the environmental damages which the citizens of Edko will endure its costs.
The LCHR presents the complaints of the people and the fishermen of Edko to the prime minister and the minister of agriculture demanding that they stop the selling of the remaining areas of the shores of the city of Edko, for the sake of protecting the rights of the people and the fishermen to a safe fishing and a clean environment. The LCHR also asks the civil society organizations to unite in solidarity with the demands of the people of Edko for the sake of protecting their rights to a decent standard of living and to live in dignity and in safety.
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