Family and Population Minister Moushira Khattab has submitted a formal request to the attorney-general for investigations into a case in Qalyubiya in which parents are alleged to have put their children up for adoption by Egyptian expatriates living in Europe. “Such practices violate human and child rights and represent a form of child trafficking,” Khattab said, adding that the law granted the state the authority to bring the parents in question to trial. Al-Masry Al-Youm has obtained documents proving the existence of "agents" tasked with mediating adoption deals between Egyptian families and expatriate Egyptians in European countries, particularly Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. More than 25 documents reveal that adopted children--all under the age of 15--come mostly from the villages of Aghour al-Soghra and Aghour al-Kobra in the Qalyubiya Governorate, located some 30 km north of Cairo. According to a judicial source speaking on condition of anonymity, more than 500 children this year alone have been sent to Europe for this reason--without any social or legal repercussions--even though the practice is in complete violation of both Egyptian and Islamic law. It is notable that, in compliance with Islamic Sharia, Egypt's Child Law explicitly prohibits adoption. Egyptian laws against human trafficking consider guilty anyone involved in the practice, whether by selling, offering to sell, purchasing, transporting or delivering children--either domestically or across national borders--through the use of force, threat, fraud, deception or abduction. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
