Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced on 24 July a government decision to temporarily halt imports of cars designated for people with disabilities for six months. The decision comes to review current procedures and set new controls ensuring that cars reach the people with special needs who are actually entitled to them, as part of the government’s efforts to combat the manipulation the system is witnessing, as the circumstances of people with disabilities have repeatedly been exploited to import cars in their names and then sell them on the market for multiple profits.
The Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center, in a video published on its official Facebook page, revealed the details of the government’s plan to regulate the system for importing cars for people with disabilities, explaining that the sample examined by the Customs Authority at the Ministry of Finance and the relevant bodies showed that 70% to 80% of the cars that entered Egypt in the past two years are not in the possession of people with disabilities but were registered in other people’s names.
The Egyptian government had previously stressed that the law on cars for people with disabilities provides for tough penalties against violators, including withdrawing driving and vehicle licences and fines of up to EGP 25,000. The law also prohibits disposing of the cars allocated to them for five years from the date of their customs release, and bans their use as taxis.
Before the halt decision was issued, the Ministry of Social Solidarity had set a number of conditions for obtaining a car, including cases of limb amputation, muscular dystrophy, polio, congenital deformities and disabilities resulting from accidents.
Osama Abou El-Magd, head of the Car Traders Association at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce, comments to Zawia3 on the prime minister’s decision, explaining that it came from the government to prevent manipulation and the exploitation of people with disabilities and their circumstances by some people, and adding that Madbouly’s statement that 80% of people with disabilities do not know there are cars registered in their names is extremely serious and should be at the top of the authorities’ priorities to hold violators to account.
Abou El-Magd explains that about 13,000 cars for people with disabilities that have already been imported are being held at customs, and that the best solution for dealing with these cars is to release them without licensing them until they are presented to a specialised committee to examine the citizen’s condition and whether they are entitled to receive the car’s licence.
He continues: there is a big problem, namely the severe congestion of cars for people with disabilities at the ports, while at the same time there are people with disabilities who deserve to get a car, and to solve this crisis and dilemma, the government set up a committee to examine and review files and determine whether each person is entitled to license the car.
The head of the Car Traders Association explains: “The ports face great congestion, which causes a real crisis. Currently, ships bringing goods from abroad leave them at the ports, and this may worsen the crisis; accumulated goods mean additional costs, as monthly ground fees are imposed on containers,” asking: “Can importers bear the costs of these ground fees for up to six months?”
Abou El-Magd stresses that despite the negative impact the temporary halt on car imports will have on some people with disabilities, it was necessary so that the state obtains its rights, support reaches those who deserve it, and manipulation and the wrongful exploitation of the circumstances of people with disabilities are prevented.
“Is it reasonable that a person today wastes seven million pounds of state money and exploits a person with a disability by giving them only 20 or 30 thousand pounds in exchange for taking over their car?” asks Abou El-Magd, who stresses that executive authorities are currently carrying out surprise inspection campaigns on people with disabilities to make sure they possess the cars they received and have not sold them for money, pointing out that these campaigns were carried out by decision of the Prime Minister as part of the government’s plan to prevent manipulation and the exploitation of people with disabilities’ circumstances.
According to Article 31 of Law No. 10 of 2018, cars for people with disabilities are exempt from customs and taxes, which some who are not entitled exploit to benefit from this advantage, according to the head of the Car Traders Association, Osama Abou El-Magd.
Supporting People with Disabilities
Gamal Saad, 63, from Badrashin district in Giza Governorate, who has a mobility disability after the amputation of his left leg, comments on the prime minister’s decision, explaining that in his opinion it was not sufficiently studied and does not serve people with disabilities, as most of them, about 90%, belong to the middle and poor classes.
He proposes that banks finance them to obtain a car, while providing them with job opportunities using these cars, with the bank receiving monthly instalments directly from the employer after deducting them from the salary of the car owner with a disability.
He adds: “People with disabilities must have an income that guarantees them a respectable and dignified life. We call on the prime minister to establish a ministry for the affairs of people with disabilities, in addition to providing offices for them in every district similar to civil registry offices, whose task would be to study their problems and meet their needs.”
Gamal explains that because of his harsh living conditions, he had to sell his car’s import letter about four months ago for EGP 45,000 and used the money to pay off his debts, as he cannot find work because of his disability and receives a monthly pension of EGP 2,600. His wife suffers from paralysis in both legs, does not work, and receives only EGP 460 a month in pension, and they pay EGP 1,300 a month in rent for an apartment, not counting electricity, water and gas bills.
The number of citizens with disabilities in Egypt is estimated at about 12 million, equivalent to 15% of the total population. The share of employed people among people with disabilities in Egypt is 44%, of whom 17% are women with disabilities.
The 2014 Egyptian Constitution includes many articles directly and indirectly related to disability; Article 81 states that “the state shall guarantee the health, economic, social, cultural, entertainment, sporting and educational rights of persons with disabilities and dwarfs, strive to provide them with job opportunities, allocate a percentage of job opportunities to them, adapt public facilities and their surrounding environment to their special needs, and ensure their exercise of all political rights and their integration with other citizens, in compliance with the principles of equality, justice and equal opportunities”. The Rehabilitation Law 39 (1975), as amended by Law 49 (1982), raised the employment quota for disabled workers from 2% to 5%.
Eman El-Sheikh, from Alexandria Governorate, tells the story of her husband Ashraf obtaining a car for people with disabilities, explaining that he is 60 years old and has a mobility disability following a road accident, that he obtained a car three years ago that is still in his possession, and that after the prime minister’s decision to temporarily halt car imports, she and her husband were surprised by traffic police officers arriving at their home to verify their ownership of the car.
Eman adds: “Without prior warning, they told us they were from the traffic department, and they had a list of the names of people with disabilities, the cars’ numbers, colours and all their data. They then examined my husband’s condition, checked his papers, the car and driving licences, photographed them and left. Afterwards, we were also surprised by officers from another police station coming to do the same thing.”
Eman works as a customs clearance agent and believes that everything happening now is the result of the widespread appearance of current-model cars from expensive brands.
She says: “In the past, cars imported into Egypt were of varied levels and served all groups, but in the past two years Egypt imported Mercedes and BMW cars, some of them for people with disabilities, and some police officers and judges took them over. Once, I went with my husband to renew the integrated services card and was surprised that 21,000 services cards had been issued, which means 21,000 people with disabilities got a new car that month.”
The customs agent comments on the government’s latest decision: “The government decided to confront this crisis, but this has created a squeeze on people with disabilities, given their need to sell the car import letters.”
The Manipulations
Khaled Saad, secretary-general of the Car Manufacturers Association at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, describes the halt decision as good. He says: “It gives us a chance to find effective solutions. It is noticeable that about 90% of the use of these cars is by able-bodied people who help their relatives with disabilities when driving.”
He calls, speaking to us, for manufacturing fully equipped cars to suit the needs of people with disabilities, with the equipment compatible with each disabled person’s specific condition.
Saad points out that there are many violations committed by some, whether traders, importers or even association owners. The main loophole these people exploit is the absence of an accurate mechanism for inspecting shipments to ensure they match the registered data.
He adds that this opens the door for some traders to manipulate shipping papers and register whole cars as spare parts. Some traders import cars from abroad and register them in the shipping system as spare parts, which allows them to pay only fines instead of the full customs duties imposed on cars. This manipulation causes many problems, including a haemorrhage of hard currency. As a result of this type of manipulation, the government is currently studying amending some procedures related to importing cars for people with special needs, due to some people’s misuse of these cars allocated to people with disabilities.
He explains that part of the current car price crisis is due to a large number of people resorting to buying or using cars for people with disabilities. The authorities had allowed people with disabilities to import any car model, which made their prices much lower than cars imported for able-bodied people.
This decision led to an increase in the number of people looking for persons with disabilities to obtain the necessary papers and pay the fees to import a car from abroad, given the reduced customs duties the state provides for people with disabilities when importing cars, according to Saad.
Complaints
Recently, a number of closed groups have emerged in which citizens with disabilities exchange their experiences and complaints. Ahmed Refaat Khattab tells of his problem in the group “People with Special Needs and Their Requirements” on Facebook.
He says: “Regarding the Cabinet’s decision to review all cars of people with disabilities since 2021 to ensure the car is in the possession of the entitled person, I was called today by an employee at the traffic unit where my car is licensed, who asked me to go quickly to the traffic unit to show the licence and the car’s ownership document, be photographed next to the car at the unit, and sign a declaration that the car is in my possession,” asking: “Why all this humiliation and insult? Why is a picture taken of me next to the car as if I got it for free and not in exchange for money?”
Ahmed complains about the many restrictions on selling, which extend for five years. He says: “In my opinion, if someone who is not entitled is caught with a car allocated to people with disabilities, he should be fined double the value of the customs clearance and value-added tax, and the car should be withdrawn and returned to its owner, with a warning not to sell the import letter again.”
The government sees this decision as having a positive impact on car owners with special needs, ensuring that the cars reach them, as part of its efforts to combat the manipulation the system is witnessing due to some individuals exploiting the circumstances of people with disabilities to import cars in their names and then sell them on the market for profit for both seller and buyer.
Meanwhile, car owners with disabilities see this decision as an insult to them that increases their daily burdens. The inspection campaigns to make sure the car is in front of the entitled person’s home also reflect society’s lack of trust in this group and create a feeling of disrespect and lack of privacy, as one person with a disability we spoke to put it.
Others we spoke to want the ministry to work on providing an income that guarantees them a respectable and dignified life. They call on the prime minister to establish a ministry for the affairs of people with disabilities, in addition to providing offices for them in every district similar to civil registry offices, whose task would be to study their problems and meet their needs.
