Four Shoura Council MPs (Emad Mahrous, Mahmoud el-A'sar, Ahmed el-Zahri and Magdy el-Basati) have called on the U.S. Government to apologize for the State Department accusing Egypt of human trafficking in one of its reports. In a letter they sent to Council Speaker Safwat el-Sharif yesterday, they said that the U.S. State Department's report describes Egypt as a transit State for women trafficking and children exploitation in prostitution. The said these allegations aimed at disturbing the good Egyptian – U.S. relations, especially under Barack Obama, who crowned his respect and appreciation for Egypt by delivering his speech to the Islamic world from Cairo. They called on the U.S. to apologize to the Egyptian government and people for those allegations. They called on the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to send a package of laws approved by the Egyptian parliament in its latest session to the U.S. State Department, including the law on childhood and motherhood, the addition of seats for women in the People's Assembly, the raising of the age of marriage, the visitation right, and other legislations serving the interests of women and children. The MPs also said that according to Hossam Zaki, spokesman of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the U.S. State Department's report on human trafficking is not drawn up according to internationally recognized criteria.
