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LCHR asks the minister of labor force for protecting farm laborers’ rights
The minister of labor force declare before Shoura Council “we search for farm labor with a needle, when we give him what he needs!!”. Therefore, LCHR asserts that that the Egyptian villages, whose numbers exceed than 4500 village, comprise more than million farm laborers. About 425 thousands tenants are evicted from their plots with the virtue of land law No 96 of 1992 “census of ministry of agriculture”. Those tenants become farm laborers. Moreover, the farm laborers syndicate, whose members are more than half million, gathers about LE100 thousands per month as subscriptions from business owners without any concern for who are laborers as seasonal laborers. .
LCHR emphasizes that there are more than million farm laborers, who work under deteriorate work conditions comparing with laborers in the industrial sector that they have no legal protection especially that the law No. 137 of 1981 excepts farms laborers, moreover, the unified labor draft follows the same direction that isn’t applied over farm laborers’ category. LCHR asserts that road accidents that farm laborers and farer children face through their transportation for and from the work especially during harvest and plowing seasons, emphasizes the existence of this category. We will show part of tragedy of this category taken place throughout the last few weeks.
The accident happens in Karkira village “the local unit of Bbrhamtosh village”, whose dwellers are about 12 thousands that comprises 800 arches, most of them possessed to limited number of big owners, who live in Cairo, Alexandria and Mansora. Most of the dwellers are daily laborers. One of LCHR researchers visits Abdel Azeem Moustafa Abdel Galil house to console him for his two dead kids. Uncle Abdel Azeem says, “in that ill-omened day, I waken my two kids early to go for work that we agree with them that they will work two days a week to pay for their own expenses. I hope if I refused their suggestion”. Then he completes “they ride plowing tractor with about other ten children at 6 am to work in El-Kasmey village, Sharkia province “25 km from their village”. After about one hour, we hear that the tractor falls in the water. Consequently, most of them die soon”. He asserts that they go for work there because of limitation of work opportunities in agricultural field. About his kids, they are Mohamed “15 years old in preparatory two” and Hani “14 years old in preparatory three”. After that, the LCHR researcher directs to Abas Arafat house, who dies through the accident. The researcher meets the victim’s wife, who says, “my husband Abas is about 40 years old that works as a daily laborer. We have five kids, who have no income resource after their father’s death. Oh, how could I survive with those innocent children”.
On the other hand, in the same are, about six farm laborers in Bbrhamtosh village died in the last year “three of them are children less than 18 years old”. In fact. This type of accidents is repeated continuously in the Egyptian countryside that there is no month without accident. For example, in last April, three farm laborers died and other 16 injured with dangerous fractions, who were going to their work in El-America, Alexandria province, when they were transited to the central America hospital. The dead victims were Hamdy Shehata “50 years”, Ragab Ibrahem “30 years” and Ragab Saber “70 years”. The LCHR is informed that in El-America, the inhabitants suffer from poverty, deteriorate health and educational services, condensed population and narrow arable land. Therefore, most of families there are obliged to work in the surrounded farms.
LCHR presents many complaints for victims’ families to the officials in ministries of labor force and social affairs to achieve pensions for those families that help them to survive.
LCHR asks the ministry of labor force to do his best to protect farm laborers’ rights. Moreover, it asks the director of labor union to activate the role of the farm laborers’ syndicate in Egypt to protect lives of hundreds and promote their rights in adequate and safe life.