The tragic incident that took place on the regional road in the Ashmoun district of Menoufia Governorate on the morning of May 28 – in which 19 young women were killed and others injured as they were heading to work in grape farms in Sadat City, following a collision between a minibus and a truck – has brought attention back to the fragile working conditions of agricultural laborers in Egypt and their lack of safe transport, making them easy targets for road accidents. This incident was not the first of its kind, as it followed several deadly accidents, the most notable of which was the collision of a pickup truck on the desert road in the Mallawi district of Minya Governorate on April 20, which was carrying 30 agricultural workers, most of whom were children. This incident resulted in the death of 8 children and the injury of 25 others.
On May 21, 2024, another tragic event occurred when 17 girls, aged between 12 and 16, drowned while riding in an old minibus crossing the Nile River via the dilapidated Abu Ghaleeb ferry in Menat Al-Qanater, Giza. In January 2022, a transport vehicle carrying 22 agricultural workers in the Nile River also fell off the Qatta ferry in Menat Al-Qanater, resulting in the drowning of 8 girls. In April 2022, 8 children from the agricultural workforce were killed in a tragic accident when a tuk-tuk overturned into the Sahl Marqas Canal in front of the Sawalim Bridge in the Itay Al-Barud district of Beheira Governorate.
Less than 48 hours after the Menoufia regional road accident, another tragic collision occurred on the Wadi El-Natrun road, resulting in the death of a girl and injuries to 17 other agricultural workers. During the investigation, the public prosecutor blamed the driver of the transport truck, accusing him of causing the accident with the workers in Menoufia after crossing the dividing barrier between the two directions, leading to a collision with the minibus carrying the victims. The lab results confirmed that the driver had been under the influence of narcotic substances when the accident occurred. The prosecutor ordered his temporary detention pending investigations. Many people linked the accident to the neglect of maintenance on the regional circular road – which stretches over 400 kilometers and connects about 15 governorates – as it has witnessed numerous accidents due to the deterioration of certain sections, the occurrence of land subsidence in parts of it, the continuous passage of heavy transport, and poor lighting.
The Nile General Company for Roads and Bridges, affiliated with the Holding Company for Road and Land Transport Projects, owned by the Ministry of Transport, was responsible for implementing the road in collaboration with the National Organization for Military Production and Petrojet, a company under the Ministry of Petroleum, from 2014 to 2024. The company participated in completing the construction of the northern loop of the road, which passes through Menoufia Governorate – the site of the accident – with a cost of approximately 8 billion EGP. Companies such as Samcrete, Nile General Roads, and Mohamed Abdel Wahab contributed to the project. Since its entry into service in September 2018, the “National Roads” company, one of the companies under the National Service Projects Authority of the Armed Forces, has managed the road, including its regular maintenance and toll collection at the crossing stations.
An analysis of approximately 583 news articles regarding accidents on the regional circular road in Egypt between 2018 and mid-2025 shows that 2023 witnessed a significant increase in the number of accidents, reaching at least 111 accidents. The accidents increased further in 2024, recording the highest number of road incidents with a total of 151 accidents that resulted in at least 95 deaths and injured no less than 1,084 individuals, most of whom were workers. In the first half of 2025, 101 accidents were recorded, resulting in 95 deaths.
2025: The Year with the Highest Casualties
Agricultural labor in Egypt represents an important sector of the workforce, accounting for approximately 19% of all employed individuals. Unofficial statistics indicate that women make up a significant proportion of the agricultural workforce, with their representation reaching up to 45% of the total workers in the sector. According to the Egyptian Family Health Survey results for 2021, there are at least 900,000 children working in Egypt, nearly half of whom are employed in hazardous conditions including agriculture, factories, workshops, and transportation.
An analysis of a sample of newspaper reports on road accidents involving agricultural laborers in Egypt from 2014 until the end of June 2025 reveals a concerning increase in fatalities and injuries, with a notable concentration of incidents in Beheira Governorate, which accounted for 90.5% of all such accidents. The total number of agricultural laborer casualties during this period reached 87 fatalities and 843 injuries, with more than a third of them occurring in the first half of 2025 alone. That year alone witnessed 11 accidents, comprising 20.75% of the total incidents during this period. These accidents resulted in 30 deaths and 146 injuries by mid-year, with the worst of them being the June 28, 2025, incident on the regional road in Menoufia, which claimed the lives of 19 agricultural workers, some of whom were minors. As a result, 2025 has been the deadliest year in terms of both fatalities and injuries.
By analyzing 53 published news articles on one of Egypt’s leading news websites, we observed a recurring pattern of agricultural workers being transported in unprepared vehicles such as pickup trucks or tractors, indicating a continued disregard for safety standards in the transportation of agricultural laborers. Additionally, there is noticeable variation in the accident rates over the years. The years 2019 and 2022 recorded the highest rates of agricultural labor transport accidents, with 11.32% for each, followed by 2017 and 2020 at 9.43%. The percentage, however, dropped significantly to just 1.89% in 2021.
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248 Victims of Seasonal Laborers
An urgent policy paper issued by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, following the tragic Menoufia incident, highlighted the recurring nature of the disaster due to the lack of oversight and the use of dilapidated transport for workers. According to a survey conducted by the center, at least 248 victims, including 55 fatalities and 193 injuries, were recorded in just one year (from July 2024 to June 2025) among agricultural workers, in the absence of official statistics and the negligence of concerned authorities.
The center criticized the failure of the Ministries of Labor and Transport to fulfill their roles in protecting this group, calling for a set of urgent measures, the most important of which are: the establishment of local offices to catalog and organize seasonal workers, monitoring their means of transportation, ensuring they receive fair wages, activating inspections at work sites, and launching comprehensive health and social protection programs. The center emphasized that ignoring these repeated recommendations constitutes a betrayal of social justice principles and a systematic disregard for the lives of workers in favor of profit and exploitation.
Unsafe and Unlicensed Transport
Lamia Lotfy, founder of the Rural Women’s Initiative and program director at the New Woman Foundation, points out that accidents involving agricultural laborers occur almost daily, usually resulting in just injuries or one or two fatalities, and therefore they do not receive much media attention, as was the case with the Menoufia accident that claimed 19 lives. She emphasizes that there is a general issue with safe transport in rural areas, where roads are narrow and most are located along the edges of irrigation canals, making it easy for them to erode or be dug up. Paved roads often deteriorate quickly due to ongoing construction work, digging, the use of water to spray asphalt, and the random placement of speed bumps in residential areas to prevent speeding, which may put residents at risk. She stresses the need for the creation of speed bumps that conform to proper standards, which would ensure the safety of passengers and residents on the sides of the roads or those living near them.
She says to Zawia3: “Agricultural workers travel long distances from their homes and villages to farms located in surrounding desert areas. Unfortunately, the way in which women and girls travel is either by tuk-tuk (a three-wheeled motorcycle), which is unlicensed and unsafe, and should not be used on highways, or by pickup trucks when there are many workers. These vehicles are often dilapidated, with worn-out tires, and if the vehicle overturns, the risks are extremely high. Women living in rural areas, as well as children and the elderly, are the most vulnerable when riding these vehicles, with a high likelihood of falling off or suffering severe injuries and fractures.”
She adds: “Even the small buses (minivans) they use are overcrowded, which increases the danger; it puts extra pressure on the vehicle’s tires, and even when they are using what seems to be a humane mode of transport, the way they board and the number of people inside make it unsafe, especially with the heat and the long hours. We’re talking about a journey that lasts between one and a half to two hours.”
She continues: “The law, which included an exception for the employment of women, excluded agricultural workers. What happened was that this clause was abolished, but the issue still lies in the mechanisms of implementing the law. We have workers who do not have contracts, are not registered in unions, and do not have social insurance. There needs to be a union that protects these people and speaks on their behalf, and the organization within it should not require membership fees but receive support from the state. The union should be responsible for providing transportation services at a reasonable cost, as well as supplying workers for farm owners. A portion of the funds would go to the union, and in return, the workers would receive fair wages, not 120 or 130 EGP per day.”
Lamia rejects blaming individuals for a completely failed system that is full of problems and lacks legal protection and social safety nets. She believes that providing safe transport and fair wages is the responsibility of the state and the employer, not that of the “contractor” or the driver. She points out that young people, women, and girls are exploited because they represent cheaper labor, calling on the state and its institutions to pass labor laws that protect these women, provide them with insurance and services, and offer a platform for submitting complaints.
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Poverty and Harsh Working Conditions
For her part, labor lawyer Intisar Badr argues that agricultural workers are often outside the scope of labor laws because they constitute a very large sector, and since there is no law protecting them, they fall outside the framework of legal protection. As a result, they work in very difficult conditions regarding wages and transportation, and no good working conditions apply to them. With increasing poverty rates due to economic policies and other factors, the harshness of working conditions has intensified, and people are forced to accept them.
She emphasizes that one of the conditions for decent work is the provision of transportation, something that has never been provided to agricultural workers. These workers constantly face accidents on agricultural roads. To protect this group, fair working conditions must be provided, and agricultural workers must be brought under the umbrella of labor law in some form. Employers must be obligated to provide safe transportation, and the state must have the will to implement fair labor conditions as outlined in international conventions.
She says to Zawia3: “If a company adheres to social responsibility, it will offer a fair wage, provide safety for workers, administrative housing, and safe transportation, and allocate 10% of its profits to the workers and the surrounding community. Imagine how many burdens would be lifted from the state’s shoulders. The issue is about linking investment in Egypt and the entire labor sector to decent working conditions and bringing agricultural workers under the umbrella of labor law.”
Excessive Loads and Road Damage
Dr. Hassan Mahdi, Professor of Roads and Traffic at Ain Shams University, emphasizes the need for a means of transportation that meets the minimum safety and security standards to transport daily laborers who use the roads. This is not always achieved, as seen when a pickup truck carries children to factories or agricultural lands. These vehicles are not equipped with any safety features and are prone to accidents. Usually, all passengers in the truck bed become victims because these vehicles are not designed to carry individuals but rather to transport goods. He points out that the issue lies in the enforcement of the law, which criminalizes this action when caught.
Mahdi explains that there are issues with the roads, resulting in many accidents. For example, regarding the regional circular road, its problems were not as significant initially but began to increase. The road’s condition in 2019 and 2020 was better than the situation it has reached in 2025. Consequently, the state decided to undertake significant repairs or even reconstruction. He explains that roads naturally deteriorate over time, reaching a stage that requires maintenance, whether routine, periodic, or major repairs.
He says to Zawia3: “Excessive loads are a major issue on Egypt’s road network because they lead to rapid deterioration or wear of the road surface. Roads are designed to carry specific loads, but in reality, the loads carried are much higher than that, which reduces the road’s lifespan. When we talk about loads, we are not referring to the number of vehicles but their weight. The road is designed for large numbers of vehicles, but the issue lies in the excessive loads (Overload). A truck with a legal weight of 70 tons may carry 180 tons. This results in a higher rate of damage, as the roads were not initially designed to carry these excessive loads. The country’s economy cannot support this, as the cost per square meter of paving would increase two-and-a-half or three times.”
He adds: “The state began a few years ago to implement ‘concrete paving,’ where heavy traffic lanes are separated and a concrete layer is laid for them, as it has higher strength and endurance than asphalt. This is a temporary solution. The final solution is to introduce ‘multimodal transport,’ that is, providing good alternatives like rail transport, which would be more economical and reduce road damage. We aim to transport between 25 to 30 million tons annually by rail, compared to the 5 million tons currently. This will help eliminate the issue of excessive loads on the road network.”
The road expert reveals that a problem has appeared in the Menoufia area, which stretches over fifty or sixty kilometers of the 400-kilometer regional circular road. This road passes through areas with strong soil (mostly desert) and other areas with weak soil (previously agricultural lands), as in the section passing through Menoufia Governorate, which has contributed to the rapid appearance of defects and road subsidence due to the combination of excessive loads and weak soil. He notes that the quality of the road network in Egypt has improved from ranking 118th globally to 18th, contributing to the expansion of the inhabited area from 6% to 14% of Egypt’s total area.
Parliamentary Movements
In the first parliamentary move, MP Ahmed Bilal El-Bersly, Vice President of the Parliamentary Bloc of the Tagammu Party, submitted an urgent statement to Counselor Dr. Hanafi Gabal, Speaker of the House of Representatives, requesting an urgent statement in the general session scheduled for Sunday, June 29, 2025, regarding the tragic incident on the regional road in Menoufia Governorate, which resulted in the martyrdom of 19 Egyptian girls working as daily laborers.
El-Bersly criticized the decision to only announce financial compensation without providing an explanation of the causes or identifying responsibilities, calling it an unacceptable insult to the Egyptian people. He clarified that the blood of an Egyptian citizen is too precious to be met with indifference or neglect by the executive authority. He emphasized that the Ministry of Transport bears direct responsibility for the incident, as it is the body responsible for constructing and maintaining the road. However, responsibility extends to the Ministry of the Interior, which is tasked with traffic control and speed enforcement on roads, Menoufia Governorate, where the incident took place, and the Ministry of Labor, which is responsible for overseeing the conditions of seasonal labor.
The MP held the entire government accountable, especially the Prime Minister, stressing that ignoring the disaster does not absolve anyone of accountability but rather intensifies condemnation. He considered the government’s silence not merely a political mistake but a “national sin” that requires accountability and may even call for the dismissal of the government if its negligence in fulfilling its duties is proven.
Despite the billions of Egyptian pounds spent by the state on developing Egypt’s road network, the lives of agricultural workers continue to be lost on the very asphalt that was promised to be improved. The recurring accidents highlight the fragility of the system for transporting these workers, the lack of oversight on their unsafe transportation means, and the failure to maintain vital roads like the regional circular road.
Daily laborers remain the weakest link in an accumulation of neglect, with children and women often paying with their lives due to exploitation by employers who take advantage of their poverty and precarious conditions. This underscores the urgent need for the state to take immediate legislative and executive actions to ensure safe transportation and protection, or else the roads will continue to bear witness to an ongoing, unceasing bloodletting.
