CAIRO: An Egyptian report published earlier this month by the Unit for the Prevention of Trafficking Children of the ministry of state for family and population, revealed the many challenges facing this growing phenomenon. The report said there is a new subculture of brokers existing in Egypt that are promoting the benefits of marrying off underage girls, but the statistics remain the government’s biggest shortcoming.There is little "accurate information about the size of the actual and the various dimensions of the issue of child trafficking at the domestic and international levels in Egypt because it is a secret trade that takes place."
The ministry’s report noted that it is difficult even to call it a phenomenon due to the overall lack of quantified statistics.
However, the report said Egypt is attempting to prevent trafficking "due to the success of brokers and this is one of the top priorities" of the ministry.
The report, which was conducted from June 2009 to June 2010, said "there were no controls to regulate the employment of children and domestic workers, despite the adoption of the Children Act and that there were no accurate statistics available on them in addition to child labor, which is one of the issues intertwined with the issue of trafficking in children, marriage and require coordination with various parties."
Yussra Abdel-Ghany, a ministry spokeswoman in Alexandria, told Bikya Masr that in order to fully gauge the situation, "we must start to correlate all the available information into hard facts so we and other institutions know how to tackle the issue."
She added that the use of hotlines has "increased dramatically and this is a sign that the problem is not going away and that there are many young girls out there that need our help."
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