Child labor assumes fatal proportions in Egypt
The latest drowning of eight working children in the Nile Delta is opening deep wounds in Egypt and renewing debate about child labor.
CAIRO — Child labor is making its way to the center of debates in Egypt, in the wake of the death of several children on their way home in the Nile Delta province of Menoufiya from work a few days ago.
Eight children from Ezbet al-Taftish, a village in Menoufiya, drowned Jan. 10 as they returned from work at a poultry farm on the road to the northern coastal city of Alexandria.
The children were part of a total of 23 minors working at the farm and returning home in the same village together. That night they boarded a truck to go home after they finished work. But the truck did not make it to the home of the children; it sank in the Nile River.
Fifteen children survived the accident, along with the driver of the truck, but eight others drowned, leaving behind bereaved families and showing the ugly face of child labor in this country.
