Cairo, April 28- The UN Migration Agency (IOM) in Egypt and the National Coordinating Committee on Combatting and Preventing Illegal Migration and Trafficking in Persons (NCCPIM&TIP) launched song and video clip “Fares” in cooperation with UNICEF Egypt as part of the second the national awareness raising campaign on the dangers of irregular migration, with the endorsement of popular Egyptian artists Zap Tharwat and Ahmed Shiba.

After the success of the social media rollout of June 2016 by Zap Tharwat, IOM and UNICEF joined forces to support the public advocacy efforts of the Egyptian Government. The video reached three million views in one week. IOM Egypt’s Chief of Mission, Mr. Laurent De Boeck, announced the release: “This is an important song aimed at raising awareness among the young population of Egypt of the dangers of irregular migration and human trafficking. It is important to try to make Egyptians see Egypt as a solution instead of contemplating migration as the only opportunity to resolve challenges”. The campaign is to be followed by a community outreach activation in the six governorates with the highest number of irregular departures across Egypt.

Under the first part of the campaign, IOM Egypt developed a video featuring Egyptian international footballer Hazem Emam, to inform target population at risk of irregular migration and human trafficking about the dangers involved in attempting sea migration journeys. The video was complemented by a social media campaign which incorporated messages from IOM’s ‘Aware Migrants’ campaign, launched earlier this year by IOM Italy showing a variety of narratives from trafficking survivors intended to address migrants in transit and potential migrants to raise awareness on the dangers of irregular migration.

For further information, please contact Andrea Dabizzi at IOM Egypt. Tel: +202-27365140, Email: iomegypt@iom.int.