IOM Egypt Statement on Rashid Shipwreck
Statement by Amr Taha, IOM Egypt Head of Office
Cairo, 22 September 2016 - IOM Egypt is deeply saddened and concerned with the recent capsizing of a boat off Burg Rashid in Beheira yesterday with hundreds of migrants aboard. Entire families, children, and young people entrusted their lives to human smugglers, and risked everything aboard an unseaworthy boat that capsized and sank at in the middle of the sea. Tens of migrants lost their lives while trying to reach Europe searching for better life and opportunities.
IOM remains at the disposal of the Government of Egypt in these difficult times to provide any needed immediate support and stands ready to provide support to the rescued migrants and their families.
So far, the Egyptian authorities have rescued 154 migrants, including 111 Egyptians, 26 Sudanese, 13 Eritreans, two Somalis, one Syrian and another Ethiopian, while 42 bodies have been recovered, all belong to Egyptians.
We urge the Parliament to pass the new anti-human smuggling law that should be a strong deterrent for smugglers. The Law safeguards the rights and addresses the needs of smuggled migrants, as well as stipulates imprisonment and substantial fines for smugglers and accomplices. Punishment amounts to life imprisonment and fines above USD 25,000 when smuggling results in the death or disability of migrant women or children, or when links to organized crime and terrorism are substantiated.
Addressing drivers of irregular migration in Egypt and forced migration in the region are more pressing than ever now. According to IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, to date 3,213 migrants have perished while attempting to cross the Mediterranean, while an estimated 298,474 migrants have arrived in Europe. As long as the root causes are not addressed, these numbers will remain on the rise.
IOM has been working with the GoE and local partners to address the root causes of irregular migration and to provide viable alternatives. This includes enhancing the employment and employability of Egyptian youth at risk of irregular migration. In that regard, IOM established five Information, Counselling and Referral Services offices that now serve as one-stop-shops for job seekers and employers to bolster the employability of young people through skill enhancement, job placement and business start-ups.
Since 2015, over 3400 beneficiaries received skill enhancement training with IOM support with over 400 being successfully matched with employment opportunities, while more than 30 young entrepreneurs received six in-kind grants to support their start-ups.
Additionally, IOM developed the Fayoum Tourism School as a successful model for upgrading demand driven vocational training and education in line with international standards with the ultimate objective of enhancing the skills of Egyptian youth to meet international demand. Currently, IOM is expanding the model by assisting in the establishment of vocational training centres in other governorates with high rates of irregular emigration especially of unaccompanied children who are increasingly venturing out on the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe.
At the same time, IOM is collaborating with CAPMAS to promote regular migration via studying and aligning the needs of local and international labour markets in sectors of mutual interest in order to design and provide relevant skill enhancement programmes for Egyptian labour, in order to enhance their employability and provide them with employment opportunities both in local and international markets.
IOM has also been working closely with the National Coordinating Committee on Combatting and Preventing Irregular Migration and the National Council of Childhood and Motherhood to raise awareness on the risks of irregular migration among youth and minors at risk or irregular migration.
IOM is aiming at multiplying these efforts to reach wider numbers of Egyptians and migrants in Egypt in order to curb the surge of irregular migrants to Europe and promote safer, regular migration.
For more information, please contact Amr Taha, IOM Egypt at IOMEgypt@iom.int.
More information available on: