Yesterday, the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) released a policy paper warning that the “catastrophic conditions” faced by informal laborers are not inevitable but stem from state negligence.
The paper comes in the wake of a fatal car crash that happened Friday, June 27, killing 18 young women and one man, and left three others injured. It cited poor transportation, exploitative working conditions, and lack of legal protections as key factors.
The center argues that such deadly outcomes are not inevitable, but rather the result of institutional negligence—placing blame squarely on the ministries of manpower and transportation for failing in their legal and constitutional duty to protect workers.
In the days that followed, Minister of Industry and Transport Kamel Al-Wazir dismissed criticism following the crash, defending the road’s construction and attacking media scrutiny of his qualifications.
“Some people say I’m not fit to be minister of transport,” he said in a televised interview, “who says so? Do you even know what I studied at the Military Technical College? That college trains you to become a scientist, inventor, and skilled engineer in all fields.”
He continued, “Have you seen my credentials? Ask my classmates. Ask my professors. They say I’m unqualified? You’re judging something you’re not qualified to assess.”
ECESR’s paper paints a grim picture of the working environment for seasonal and day laborers, especially women. It describes unsafe and rickety transport, hazardous worksites lacking basic health and safety standards, and unregulated pay with no contracts or insurance.
To address these risks, the paper proposed five urgent recommendations, including the creation of local offices to register and oversee day laborers, enforce vehicle safety, monitor wages, and ensure compliance with labor laws.
It also urged the state to regulate wages to guarantee compliance with the national minimum wage and ramping up inspections to prevent child labor and enforce workplace health and safety standards
Lastly, the center urged the launch of comprehensive social and health protection programs tailored to the needs of day laborers and their families.
In a rapid survey, the center documented 248 casualties among informal workers between July 2024 and June 2025–55 deaths and 193 injuries—all from transportation-related accidents.
“This crisis reveals a stark betrayal of the social justice principles enshrined in Egypt’s constitution,” ECESR said, accusing the government of lacking the political will to protect vulnerable workers.
Speaking to Al Manassa, the center’s director Malek Adly said that the proposed measures are low-cost and feasible. “Officials often claim that regulating informal labor is too complex, especially registering workers. We’re offering solutions that require only swift decisions from the ministers of labor and local development, or even the prime minister,” he said.
Adly explained that the proposed local offices would function differently from the manpower ministry’s existing database, which focuses on grants and compensation. These new offices would monitor wages to ensure they meet the National Wage Council’s hourly minimum of 28 Egyptian pounds (about $0.58), while shielding workers from exploitation by employers or middlemen.
They would also receive complaints of abuse, overwork, or unsafe conditions directly from laborers.
To bring the recommendations to life, Adly noted that pressure from civil society and political actors is needed. “We will be engaging with lawmakers to push this agenda forward,” he added.
Estimates of Egypt’s informal labor force vary widely. While the labor ministry lists just over 1.16 million registered workers, union officials put the figure between 12 million and 14 million.
Following the crash, labor groups and political parties demanded an investigation into employer practices and oversight failures. Members of parliament also demanded a fact-finding committee and raised questions about the state’s road infrastructure spending and oversight mechanisms.
Meanwhile, the labor and social solidarity ministries said they had disbursed compensation, providing 500,000 pounds ($10,000) to each victim’s family and 70,000 pounds ($1,450) to each injured person.
This latest incident is not isolated. Deadly crashes involving female farmworkers have occurred before in Egypt. In May 2024, 17 individuals were killed and eight injured when a minibus returning from Menoufiya fell off a Nile ferry in Abu Ghaleb. Before that, in January 2022, eight young workers died in a similar ferry accident in Giza.
