Earlier this month, a road accident in Egypt’s Menoufia Governorate killed 19 young agricultural workers, most of which were teenage girls. They had been commuting from their village Kafr al-sanabsa to fields in Sadat City when their minibus collided with a truck. The tragedy highlighted a wider crisis that persists quietly across Egypt; child labor. Despite legal reforms, children, especially in rural areas, continue to work in unsafe conditions for meager pay, often without legal protections or access to education. According to the 2021 Egypt Family Health Survey (EFHS), an estimated 1.3 million children, around 4.9 percent of the child population, are involved in labor, with over 900,000 working in hazardous environments. Rural areas, particularly in Upper Egypt, bear the brunt. In these communities, child labor is not only widespread, it is widely accepted. In Egypt’s agricultural zones, particularly in governorates like Menoufia, it is common for children, particularly girls, to take on physically demanding work for low wages. Many travel long distances in overcrowded minibuses to reach fields in areas like Sadat City, where they earn as little as EGP 120 (USD 2.43) a day. In this most recent…
Too Young to Work, Too Young to Die: Egypt’s Ongoing Child Labor Crisis
July 15, 2025
