The Government of Egypt has been making strides in its efforts to combat human trafficking, according to the 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report. Although Egypt does not yet fully meet the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking, it remains on Tier 2 due to increased efforts compared to previous years. These efforts include funding the National Coordinating Committee on Preventing and Combating Illegal Migration (NCCPIM & TIP), initiating more investigations and prosecutions, and increasing awareness campaigns.
Despite these improvements, there are still significant gaps in victim protection and support. The government has not reported services provided to identified victims or implemented guidance on victim identification and referral procedures. As a result, some victims continue to be penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
Recommendations for Egypt include implementing standard operating procedures for identifying and referring trafficking victims, ensuring that they are not treated as criminals, providing adequate resources for protection services such as hotlines and shelters, increasing investigations and convictions of traffickers with stringent sentences, extending legal protections to domestic workers, raising awareness about specialized courts among officials, encouraging victim cooperation in prosecutions, expanding nationwide awareness campaigns, and improving data collection on human trafficking cases.
The government's law enforcement efforts have maintained momentum under the 2010 anti-trafficking law which prescribes penalties from three to 15 years imprisonment for sex and labor trafficking offenses. However, during the reporting period only three Egyptians were convicted in one case of sex trafficking.
Protection measures remain weak with ineffective victim identification contributing to authorities punishing some victims. The Ministry of Social Solidarity assisted street children but did not report how many were trafficking victims. Observers noted that shelter services are poor due to lack of staff training.
On prevention initiatives, NCCPIM & TIP conducted training sessions reaching various beneficiaries including students and migrants. They also distributed informational booklets addressing forced labor and commercial sex acts risks while using social media messaging extensively.
The report outlines that Egypt is both a source and destination country for forced labor and sex trafficking affecting men women children particularly vulnerable groups like foreign domestic workers Syrian refugees irregular migrants from Africa Middle East Asia experiencing abuse exploitation along migration routes especially Sinai Peninsula Libya border areas where criminal groups operate.