Egypt to Establish a Law to Help Egyptians Abroad

Egypt is working on creating a law to a establish Fund for Caring for Egyptians Abroad to help assist Egyptian expatriates. The final draft was sent to the ministerial cabinet on 14 March for approval.

After the approval from the cabinet, the law must be submitted to the State Council for final approval. According to sources, committees from the Ministries of Justice, Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Labor Force will be administrating the Fund.

This fund will help Egyptians living abroad who need legal and judicial assistance such as abiding by the sponsorship system in the Gulf as well as informing them of job openings in Egypt. The bill also aims to establish communities abroad for Egyptians to help them connect to one another.

According to Article 88 of Constitution 2014, “shall safeguard the interests of Egyptians living abroad, protect them and protect their rights and freedoms, enable them to perform their public duties towards the State and society, and encourage their contribution to the development of the nation.”

Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics’ (CAPMAS) revealed that in 2017, around 9.5 million Egyptians lived abroad. The biggest population lives in other countries in the Middle East accounting for 6.2 million, while 1.6 million are dispersed around North and South America, 1.2 million are located in Europe and 340,000 are living in Australia.

In 1930, the local government have been sending Egyptians to Arab countries to help them with their developmental projects which contributed to the increased number of Egyptian expats specifically in the Gulf. At least 2.9 million Egyptian employees reside in Saudi Arabia, 1.6 million in Jordan, 765,000 live in the United Arab Emirates, 500,000 in Kuwait and 230,000 in Qatar.