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Land Center worries about El-Behira misery
We calls the People Assembly and the Egyptian government to establish specialized ministry for child rights protection
While the People Assembly declared its tentative acceptance on the new labor draft considered as new retrogression for labourers’ rights in Egypt, we received the miserable news of death 21 of farm labourers and injury of other 68 on 16/7/2002 through horrible crash accident in El-Behira province. The two lorries crashed on the kilo 71 on Cairo-Alexandria runway. One of these lories was crowded with more than seventy farm labourers, most of them were children, less than 18 years old, who were returning from their work “harvesting apricot” in El-Fayom province. While Mohamed Rageb, the driver of the afflicted car, was driving rashly, he couldn’t flee from the opposite car that appeared suddenly. The accident led to death of 19 child and injury of other 48, most of them are from Manshia Safer, Elfark Elbahery and Attlasa villages in El-Fayom province. At the same time, Kom Saadon village, Abo Elmatamer centre witnessed lorry accident crowded with huge number of child labourers aged between 12 to 18 years old, who used to work in vegetable farms that led to death of two girls and injury of other nineteen with dangerous wounds. It is known that this type of accident isn’t either the first or the last one that it increases in harvesting seasons through transporting child labourers to the farms that are far from their houses with hundreds km. Those children are obliged to work because of their deteriorated social and economic conditions under which most of past tenants, daily-wage labourers and small scale holders live.
In 2001, more than twenty-seven child died and forty child injured in Damita village, Gharbia province, Mohamed Afandi village, El-Fayom province, Alkam village, Monofia province and bees village in El-Behira province through road accidents. The farms’ owners used to charge the labourers’ contractor to bring number of children to achieve some agricultural operations as harvesting, seeding and land cleaning for trivial wages. Those children are usually accumulated through their coming and going to and from their work in the back boxes of huge lorries. They work in farms for long hours with neither contracts nor any legal guarantees. It is accompanied with the rash drivers, who have no driving license that lead to occurrence of these tragic accidents.
Despite the repeat of these accidents, the government does nothing but presenting trivial amount of money for victims’ families in addition to charging the driver for his rash speed and inexistence of driving license. On the other hand, the business owner has no legal responsibility towards these children for whom they work. Moreover, the governmental officials even don’t confess with those children, who work in the agricultural sector that oblige them to face more and more violations. The statistic reveals that there is more than one million and half child labourer in the agricultural sector. The Egyptian laws don’t confess with those children even the new labour draft, which exceptions the labourers in the agricultural sector from enjoying with their rights as other labourers in other sectors. It means that this category, which is obliges to work because of their poor social and economic conditions especially after implementation of law No. 96 of 1992, face deliberate ignorance. Those children don’t suffer from violating their rights in education and growth and legal negligence only but this negligence extends to comprise labour offices and ministries of social affairs, health, education and labour force.
Consequently, Land Center for Human Rights insists on providing those children in the Egyptian countryside with legal protection, social insurance, healthcare, education and safety. It asks the People Assembly to involve child labourers in the agricultural sector under the umbrella of the law in addition to achieving some amendments in some articles concerning child labor that the centre asks for frequently. These amendments are about determining labor age, labour contracts, the right of participation, social and health insurance, rest, vacations, entertainment, education, joining with syndicates and other human rights stipulated by the Egyptian constitution and international charters.
LCHR presented complaints before the prosecutor general asking for compensation for children families and punishing the accused. Moreover, we ask the officials to support human rights activists and civil society organizations. We wish if the government establishes a specialized ministry for child affairs that guarantees their human rights stipulated in the international conventions and agreements. This ministry will be honourable example for child labour protection. Moreover, LCHR thinks that it will be effective if all civil society organizations participate in managing the ministry’s affairs that will guarantee more progress and success for achieving more humanistic world for our children “our future”. We ask all the concerned in Egypt to work for executing this recommendation to protect the future of our country.