{"id":16799,"date":"2026-09-23T18:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T16:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=16799"},"modified":"2026-10-24T14:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T12:58:12","slug":"damietta-eviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/damietta-eviction\/","title":{"rendered":"Half a Century of Residence and Documented Contracts Fail to Shield 350 Damietta Spinning Families from Eviction Notices"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 350 families living in the “Damietta Spinning” housing face the threat of eviction and displacement, more than half a century after settling in these residential units owned by the Damietta Spinning and Weaving Company (Damiatex), which is affiliated with the public business sector; in August 2026 the residents received official notices through Egypt Post demanding that they vacate their residential units and leave them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The notices came despite the residents, who are retired workers of the company and their wives and children, holding legal open-ended lease contracts that are officially notarised, some of which date back to 1998, and despite their commitment to paying the rent regularly, which has risen from about EGP 19.56 to EGP 250. The residents recount that their homes were built with money from the “Fellowship Fund”, which used to be deducted from the workers’ salaries, as part of the system of services and social welfare provided for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past weeks, the residents have published <\/span>appeals<\/span><\/a> on social media, addressed to the Governor of Damietta, Dr Hossam El-Din Fawzy Abdel Fattah Abu Seif, the Ministry of Public Business Sector, the Holding Company for Cotton, Spinning, Weaving and Garments, and the management of the Damietta Spinning and Weaving Company, to halt the eviction decisions and protect the families from displacement after decades of service and settled life in the housing belonging to the company, which former President Gamal Abdel Nasser <\/span>inaugurated<\/span><\/a> on 6 May 1960.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahmed Mohamed (a pseudonym), one of the residents of the Damietta Spinning Company housing and the son of one of the company’s veteran workers, recounts that the history of the housing goes back to the 1960s, as it was built at the same time as the establishment of the Damietta Spinning and Weaving factory, which employed engineers, technicians and workers from various governorates, because their specialisations were not available in Damietta at the time, which made it necessary to provide them with housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

He explains that Damietta Governorate had allocated the land adjacent to the company for building the housing, which comprises 23 residential buildings, while the workers themselves contributed to constructing the buildings through the “Fellowship Fund”, which was based on monthly contributions from the employees and workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

He tells Zawia3: “My father was among the first workers at the company, before he and about 350 to 400 of the engineers, technicians and workers were called up to Sinai to take part in the 1967 war and the War of Attrition, which led to the factory’s production stopping until 1974, when it returned to work intensively in spinning, weaving and Egyptian long-staple cotton during the period from the mid-1970s until the 1980s, and its output was intended for export, but the company later began dismantling and selling parts of its assets and its land.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He adds that a dispute broke out between the company’s management and the residents during the 1990s, as the company filed a lawsuit against them in an attempt to evict them from the housing, but the Governor of Damietta at the time reviewed the documents and concluded open-ended lease contracts with the residents in June 1998, in return for a symbolic rent paid to the company, amounting to about EGP 19.56 a month.<\/span><\/p>\n

He stresses that the contracts held by the residents include clauses stipulating that the unit may not be relinquished or vacated, and that the right of residence continues until the fourth generation, adding that the payment started at about EGP 20 and then gradually rose to larger amounts, before the old-rent increases were later applied to them; but since last August the company has begun sending eviction notices to residents who have lived there for about five decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

He continues: “The structural condition of the company’s housing does not call for eviction or demolition; it comprises 23 residential buildings, each five storeys high, which are maintained and in good condition, and we request an inspection by a committee of the Ministry of Housing to determine the structural condition of the buildings, in which about 360 families live, most of them elderly.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Also in August, the mother of Hanan Gad, who has lived in the Damietta Spinning housing for more than half a century and whose late husband worked for decades at the spinning and weaving company, was shocked, like the other residents, by notices demanding that they vacate the units in which they have lived for decades and for which they pay rent and utility bills, without any alternative housing being provided.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hanan tells Zawia3: “My father, who died about 16 years ago, had spent more than 50 years working at the Damietta Spinning Company, and my mother, who is nearly ninety, still lives in one of the housing flats; she is elderly and bedridden, but she was recently surprised to receive a notice demanding that she vacate, like the rest of the residents.”<\/span><\/p>\n

She explains that her mother has an open-ended month-to-month lease contract, like the rest of the families living in the Damietta Spinning housing, expressing her concern about her mother’s fate if the eviction is carried out, given her advanced age, her state of health and her dependence on those around her for her care.<\/span><\/p>\n

She points out that the residents believe that their continued receipt of water, electricity, gas, cleaning and other services throughout the years of their residence confirms the settled nature of their residence in the housing, appealing to the government, the governorate and officials to intervene to look into the situation of the residents of the Damietta Spinning housing, and to work to provide suitable housing alternatives if their continued residence in the current units proves impossible.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Notification
Notification of an eviction letter received by one of the residents of the Damietta Spinning and Weaving Company housing through Egypt Post on 25 August 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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