Egypt confronts human trafficking: Abul-Atta

CAIRO – 21 November 2017: Amr Abul-Atta, Egypt’s representative in the U.N. Security Council, said on Tuesday that Egypt is exerting great efforts on the local and international levels to confront human trafficking, noting that Egypt sets legal and institutional frameworks to ensure implementing its international commitments.

During the U.N. Security Council’s session on human trafficking, Egypt’s representative added that his country launched a national strategy regarding this issue in October 2016 and started its five-year work plan (2016-2021) that includes various projects and media campaigns to raise awareness of the issue and build the capabilities of people working in that field in Egypt.

He clarified Egypt’s plan to combat this phenomenon, saying that the Egyptian law for combating human trafficking was issued in 2010, a national committee was formed and specialized courts were determined for judgment in these cases.

Concerning Egypt’s reginal efforts on this cause, he said that Egypt was hosting the second ministerial meeting of the African Union-Horn of Africa Initiative (AU-HoAI) on trafficking persons and smuggling migrants, which was held in Sharm el-Sheikh in September 2015, in addition to other international conferences.