Egypt qualifies workers for employment in Italy, Greece

CAIRO – 9 May 2024: Minister of Immigration and Egyptian Expats Soha Gendi stated Wednesday that the Egyptian and Italian governments were in the process of setting up a center for employment and legal migration.

The center's mission will be training and qualifying Egyptians to work abroad as well as acquainting them with the laws and culture of the country they are heading to.   

Further, Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum Dimitris Karidis, who was meeting the Egyptian minister of labor in Cairo, stated that his country wanted to expand the agreement it had with Egypt on seasonal agricultural workers to extend to the sectors of constructions and tourism among others. He also pledged to consider extending the duration of seasonal employment contracts from nine months to 24.

On his side, the Egyptian minister noted that the ministry possessed 83 fixed and mobile vocational training centers that had been collaborating with the private sector to teach youth the skills needed locally and abroad.

Currently, the Greek ministry is finalizing the measures to receive 5,000 Egyptian seasonal workers starting June, as the first list of names has already been sent to the consulate in Cairo.

Egyptian Ambassador to Athens Omar Amer stated in a press interview with ANA-MPA in February that the seasonal workers agreement between the two countries, whose implementation began in 2023, would create job opportunities for 10,000 Egyptians.

The agreement signed in 2022 provides that the Egyptian laborers would be granted a nine-month stay every year to make up for the shortage in agricultural workers. The pilot phase that took place last year consisted of 5,000 workers but later the number was raised.