[ Human Trafficking, Country-by-Country ]

EGYPT (Tier 2 Watch List) – Extracted in part from the U.S. State Dept 2023 TIP Report

The Government of Egypt does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.  These efforts included approving a new national strategy to combat trafficking, increasing convictions of traffickers, more than doubling the training of officials and partners, and issuing presidential directives to prioritize certain public awareness and protection activities.  However, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period, even considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, if any, on its anti-trafficking capacity.  The government identified the fewest trafficking victims since 2019 and investigations decreased.  In a limited number of instances, the government continued cases where trafficking charges were used to prosecute non-trafficking offenses, which undercut efforts to hold sex and labor traffickers criminally accountable.  Authorities continued to inappropriately penalize victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.  Despite high trafficking risks for foreign nationals in Egypt, authorities rarely identified or provided services to non-Egyptian trafficking victims.  Victim services and shelter remained insufficient, and the government relied on international organizations and NGOs to provide some services, especially for men and foreign victims, without financial or in-kind support.  The government’s only specialized trafficking shelter was closed for several months of the reporting period to enable the training of staff and reportedly only assisted approximately 20 of the approximately 484 victims identified since the shelter’s opening in 2021.  For the third consecutive year, the government did not approve a draft law to expand labor protections to domestic workers.  Therefore Egypt was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List.

Prioritized Recommendations

Significantly improve efforts to proactively identify trafficking victims, especially among vulnerable populations such as migrants, refugees, and domestic workers, and refer identified victims to appropriate shelter and services. 

Expand protection services and shelters to victims of all forms of trafficking – including male and foreign victims – and allocate adequate resources and staffing for these services. 

Continue to disseminate, implement, and utilize country-wide procedures and guidelines for law enforcement, judicial, and other relevant officials to proactively identify and refer trafficking victims to appropriate care. 

Cease coordination with and support to armed groups recruiting or using child soldiers. 

Increase investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of sex and labor trafficking, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers – including complicit officials and child sex tourists – which should involve significant prison terms. 

Increase efforts to ensure authorities do not inappropriately penalize trafficking victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, such as immigration violations or prostitution offenses. 

Expand coordination with and support to NGOs providing services to trafficking victims and populations vulnerable to human trafficking. 

Cease targeting of non-traffickers through non-germane trafficking charges. 

Increase efforts to address and reduce the demand for “summer marriages” and commercial sex acts. 

Amend the labor law to include labor protections for Egyptian and foreign domestic workers and increase overall efforts to improve protections for domestic workers.