At least 18 individuals, many of them children aged 13 to 14, were killed in northern Egypt on Tuesday when two pick-up trucks carrying agricultural day laborers collided, according to a local medical source reported by AFP.
Earlier, Egypt’s health ministry reported a total of 47 fatalities and approximately 30 injuries following the accident in the Dawawis area within the Ismailia governorate.
Overcrowded pickup trucks are a prevalent but dangerous mode of transportation for millions of informal workers in Egypt, posing considerable risks to child laborers.
“The majority of the deceased are children aged 13 and 14,” a source told AFP, opting to stay anonymous due to not being authorized to brief the media.
The medical source couldn’t supply detailed figures right away, but the local media outlet Al-Masry Al-Youm reported that the youngest victim was 10 years old.
According to official statistics, over 1.3 million minors in Egypt are engaged in child labor and often suffer from commuting-related accidents.
A local security source informed AFP that the workers, primarily from two villages in Sharqiya, a governorate in the Nile Delta, were “on their way to work on a farm in Ismailia.”
An investigation into the cause of the crash has been initiated by authorities, and those injured have been transported to nearby hospitals for treatment.
The International Labour Organization reports that informal employment constitutes approximately 67 percent of jobs in Egypt, covering almost the entire agricultural sector.
An estimated 8 to 13 million individuals work as “irregular” day laborers, primarily in agriculture, construction, and manufacturing sectors. These workers often lack adequate wage and safety protections.
