Written by: Sohad El-Khodary
Video Production: Ahmed El-Sheikh
Design: Nahla Mohamed

Nourhan Mohamed (a pseudonym), a thirteen-year-old girl from Dakahlia governorate in Egypt’s Nile Delta, was brutally beaten by her father when she refused to work in the fields. At just nine years old, she was forced into agricultural labor alongside her mother, her protests ignored and her childhood cut short. Frail in build and deeply unwilling to take on such backbreaking work, Nourhan had no choice but to give in. What kept her going was a quiet determination—to stay in school and to support her mother in raising her four younger sisters.

Two women harvesting crops during the harvest season in the city of Sinbillawin, Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt.
Photo by: Sohad El-Khodary

Like Nourhan, many young girls from impoverished villages across Egypt are forced by their families into agricultural labor at an early age. In exchange for meager wages, they endure long, grueling hours of work that far exceed what their young bodies can bear. This investigation documents ten such cases—girls compelled to work the fields to help support their families, all under the legal working age. Their stories unfold against a backdrop of lax oversight from the Ministry of Labor (formerly known as the Ministry of Manpower) and the Social Insurance Authority.

Many of these girls are forced to abandon their education altogether or settle for only a basic certificate. Agricultural work often requires them to leave home at dawn and travel for hours to reach the fields—making it nearly impossible to attend school on workdays.

The risks these young girls face go beyond the harsh conditions of fieldwork. They are transported to the farms in overcrowded, unsafe vehicles—making them highly vulnerable to road accidents and serious injuries. Between 2017 and 2024, this investigation documented 82 traffic accidents involving the transport of agricultural laborers, many of them underage girls.

Behind this exploitation are brokers who act as middlemen, directly arranging jobs for the girls while taking a cut from their already meager daily wages. These brokers exploit legal loopholes in Egypt’s labor and child protection laws, allowing them to continue employing children under hazardous and unlawful conditions

Forced to Work Through Injury

The abuse doesn’t end with long hours and low pay—many girls face mistreatment at the hands of employers who show little concern for their health or safety. Injuries are often ignored, and in some cases, girls are pressured to keep working despite being hurt. Nourhan experienced this firsthand when a landowner insisted, she continue her shift in the fields, even after she was injured.

Nourhan began traveling to various governorates at an early age to work in the fields—including Giza, Beheira, Sharqia, and Damietta. For an entire year, she labored alongside her mother without pay, as employers claimed she was merely “helping her mother.” She received her first wage at the age of ten. Today, her daily pay stands at just 50 Egyptian pounds—barely 99 cents.

In one incident, while harvesting crops in Giza, Nourhan slipped on wet ground and broke her leg. The landowner refused to cover the cost of treatment, telling her flatly, “That’s not my responsibility.” Her family had to bear the medical expenses over two months.

Just months later, in December 2024, she was injured again—this time while working in a field in Dakahlia. A deep cut on her hand caused heavy bleeding, but her employer hastily tied a piece of cloth around the wound and said coldly, “Get back to work.” Ignoring the pain, Nourhan carried on as if nothing had happened.

The Delta Map

“The Nile Delta region in Egypt is the fertile plain formed where the Nile River meets the Mediterranean Sea. The river branches into two main distributaries: the Damietta branch to the east and the Rosetta branch to the west, creating a triangular area that extends northward from Cairo to the Mediterranean coast. The Delta is considered the heart of Egyptian agriculture, due to its fertile lands and abundant crop production.”

Sherine Reda, 15, a third-year preparatory student, began working in the fields when she was just ten. Her days stretched to 12 hours, including travel, for a wage that never exceeded 150 Egyptian pounds—barely $2.98. While harvesting cotton, Sherine suffered an eye injury that left her with blurred vision and ongoing sight issues, making it difficult to continue working. Like so many others, she was left to shoulder the burden of treatment with her family, after the landowner flatly refused to pay for her medical care.

Economic Exploitation

The “manpower contractor” plays a central role in facilitating child labor in agriculture, acting as the middleman between the girls’ families and landowners. In return, he takes a cut from the girls’ already meager daily wages. Not only does he deduct a fee for securing the job, but he also charges them for transportation to and from the fields—especially when employers refuse to cover travel costs. The result is a system where underage girls are exploited at every step, working long hours for a fraction of what little they earn.

According to Nourhan and her fellow workers, the contractor deducts 10 Egyptian pounds—about $0.20—from each laborer’s daily wage as a fee for securing the job. This leaves Nourhan with just 40 pounds a day, or roughly $0.80. She says the work offers neither fair pay nor humane conditions. Her shifts range from seven to eight hours, during which she harvests a variety of crops including cotton, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and eggplants. “If my financial situation were any better,” she says quietly, “I would never have taken this job.”

Farmers harvesting peas in the Nile Delta region of Egypt.
Photo by: Sohad El-Khodary

The same holds true for Sama, 16-year-old. Like many others, her work is arranged by a manpower contractor who deducts 10 Egyptian pounds—around $0.20—from each girl’s wage for transportation, regardless of the poor service. “He doesn’t deserve that money,” she says, explaining that her net daily pay ends up at just 90 pounds, or $1.79.

Each day, she returns home physically drained after long hours in the fields, too exhausted to move, help around the house, or study. “I dream of becoming an engineer one day,” she says. “I want to fulfil my mother’s wish for me to finish my education—so she won’t have to work again to support us.”

Manpower Contractors: “Their Families Ask Us to Hire Them”

For seven years, Mahfouza El-Sayed, 45, from Damietta governorate, worked as a manpower contractor, organizing labor for agricultural employers. She left the job in 2022 and now works as a farm laborer herself, after her financial situation took a downturn.

Mahfouza recalls, “When I worked as a contractor, I earned just 1 Egyptian pound per worker per day, while the landowner paid each laborer 50 pounds.” Her work was confined to villages in Damietta governorate, and she clarifies that arranging and covering the cost of transportation was the employer’s responsibility—not hers. The transport methods varied, she says, from small pickup trucks to agricultural tractors.

She added, “Sometimes the employer wouldn’t provide any transportation at all and would just tell us to walk—if the distance wasn’t too far.”

Mahfouza avoided directly answering questions about the safety of the transport used for farmworkers, but she did recount a tragic incident from 2023. One of the workers—her neighbor—was fatally run over when the agricultural tractor they were riding overturned.

Farmers in a transport vehicle during the harvest season in the Delta region.
Photo by: Sohad El-Khodary

Mahfouza often received requests from parents asking her to hire their children—both boys and girls—for agricultural work, driven by dire financial need. “Most of them were between 12 and 15 years old,” she says. “I used to prioritize orphans, believing they were most in need of the income.”

She recalls the last girl she hired, two years ago—a 15-year-old who had dropped out of school. At her mother’s request, Mahfouza found her a job in the fields, where she earned between 20 and 25 Egyptian pounds per day—just $0.65 to $0.81 at the time (based on the exchange rate of EGP 30.85 to the dollar on December 22, 2023).

Farm owners, she adds, never provided meals for the workers. The children carried out the same grueling tasks and worked the same long hours as adults—without any consideration for their age or physical limitations.

Faiza Abbas (a pseudonym), a 50-year-old contractor from Belqas in Dakahlia Governorate, has been in the business of employing children for years. With many parents seeking her help to provide work for their young children, she has become a go-to figure in a troubling industry. The children she hires, aged between 12 and 15 years old, are typically split into two groups: 60% boys and 40% girls.

The most recent girl Faiza employed was her own granddaughter, just two years ago. “She was not even 12 at the time,” Faiza recalls. “My daughter asked me to give her a job to help with her school expenses, especially after her husband passed away. She still works and studies simultaneously.” Faiza’s granddaughter earns between 60 to 70 Egyptian pounds per day (roughly 1.19 to 1.39 USD) for working 8 to 11 hours a day. “I believe this kind of work is too harsh for children,” Faiza admits.

Dangerous Journeys: Fatal Risks for Child Workers

But the dangers extend beyond the work itself. Several girls interviewed reported that the transportation provided by their employers to and from the farms is both unsafe and hazardous. These transport methods have been the cause of numerous accidents, some of which have proven fatal.

Young workers are especially vulnerable, often being transported in unsafe vehicles such as agricultural tractors or pickup trucks. These vehicles, typically arranged by contractors, lack the safety standards needed to protect the children they carry. According to testimonies from workers, their families, and contractors, these transport methods put the children’s lives at risk every day.

The investigation author compiled a database from news archives that included agricultural labor accidents. The results of the analysis revealed that 82 transport accidents occurred between April 28, 2017, and January 2, 2025. Pickup trucks ranked first with 51 accidents, followed by half-ton trucks with 18 accidents, and microbuses with six accidents.

Infographic showing the number of agricultural labor accidents by type of transport—source: database compiled and analyzed by the investigation’s author from news archives.

The 82 documented accidents led to 988 injuries and 125 fatalities. Altogether, 107 incidents involving agricultural laborers were recorded—stemming either from unsafe transportation or hazardous working conditions. Road accidents topped the list with 74 cases, followed by poisoning incidents (8 cases) and run-over accidents (4 cases).

Beheira governorate reported the highest number of incidents, with 63 cases. Dakahlia and Ismailia came in second, each recording nine accidents.

Nourhan vividly remembers the accident she and her mother endured on their way to work in the fields—an ordeal she blames on what she calls “unsafe transportation.” “About a year ago,” she recalls, “we were riding in a pickup truck with other workers when it overturned. My mother fell hard on her back, and my head slammed against the metal frame of the vehicle. I needed a week of treatment, but the employer refused to cover any of our medical expenses.”

Just six months earlier, she had suffered another serious injury when her foot got caught in the truck’s rear metal frame, nearly costing her a leg. Once again, the landowner declined to pay for her treatment.

Sherine Mahmoud, 38, broke her arm after falling from a transport vehicle on her way to work. Her recovery took a month and a half. A year later, she was involved in another accident when the truck carrying her and her coworkers overturned after hitting a speed bump. Several women were thrown from the vehicle, hitting their heads. Despite the severity of the incident, the employer refused to pay for their medical treatment.

Working at the Cost of Education

At just 12 years old, Yasmin Mostafa (a pseudonym), now 16, saw her academic path disrupted when she was forced into agricultural labor.“I had to miss school several times to accompany my mother to work in the fields,” she recalls. “Back in middle school, I used to pretend I was sick to justify my absences.”The repeated interruptions took a toll on her academic performance, ultimately pushing her to enroll in a commercial secondary school—a track that leads only to an intermediate diploma. Although she eventually left fieldwork behind, economic hardship drove her back into the workforce—this time as a school janitor—just so she could afford to stay in school.

Mai Reda, now 20, also saw her dream of becoming a doctor slip away when she was denied the chance to enroll in general secondary school. She began working alongside her mother in the fields at the age of 14, often missing school to help cover the cost of her own education.

“Our financial situation didn’t allow me to pursue medicine or even enroll in the general secondary track,” she says, “even though my grades were good enough to qualify.”

Calls for Safe Transportation and Health Insurance

Naguib Mohamady, head of the Farmers’ Union in Dakahlia governorate, describes the daily wage of agricultural workers—just 100 Egyptian pounds (approximately $1.99)—as insufficient to cover basic living expenses. He is calling on the relevant authorities to provide social insurance, ensure access to pensions, and enforce the Agricultural Workers Law to protect laborers in the sector.

Mohamady estimates the number of agricultural workers in Egypt to be between 20 and 25 million, with women making up nearly half—around 12.5 million—due to worsening economic conditions that have driven more women into the sector. Children account for approximately 12% of the agricultural labor force.

He urges the government to implement comprehensive health insurance for farmers and laborers, and to provide safe roads and humane transportation—criticizing the current vehicles as “open and unfit for human use.”

Mohamady also calls on the authorities to regulate the agricultural labor market, raise wages to ensure a dignified life for workers, and reinstate the agricultural workers’ pension system, which was discontinued several years ago.

Legal Loopholes and Violations of International Conventions

Article 26 of Egypt’s Labor Law No. 12 of 2003 explicitly excludes certain categories—such as purely agricultural laborers, domestic workers, and similar groups—from the protections offered by the law. Instead, the responsibility for regulating and monitoring the employment of irregular workers, including seasonal agricultural laborers, seafarers, miners, quarry workers, and construction workers, falls to the relevant ministries—primarily the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Labor.

The competent minister, in consultation with the relevant ministers and the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions, issues decisions determining the regulations governing the employment of these categories, including the required occupational safety and health standards, transportation and accommodation conditions, as well as the financial and administrative regulations that govern such employment. Article 97 of the Unified Labor Law of 2003, under Chapter VI, exempts female workers engaged in purely agricultural labor. Furthermore, Article 103 excludes all rights related to child laborers working in purely agricultural activities.

According to data from Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. for the year 2022, the agriculture and fishing sector ranked first in terms of employment, accounting for 18.9% of the labor force—equivalent to 5.273 million workers. The average weekly working hours in the sector stood at 43 hours, or roughly seven hours per day across six working days. The average daily wage for agricultural workers was 105.60 Egyptian pounds, equivalent to $4.27 at the time the data was compiled, based on the exchange rate of 24.71 EGP to the dollar recorded by the state-owned National Bank of Egypt on December 31, 2022.

He adds, “Agricultural laborers—especially migratory child farmworkers employed through middlemen—remain outside the scope of legal protection. They are not covered by legislation and are not held accountable under the law.” Hilal explains that if a girl is beaten by her father and forced to work, the father may be charged with endangering a child—a crime punishable by up to six months in prison. Meanwhile, a labor contractor who collects money from workers in exchange for employment or transportation may be prosecuted for economic exploitation, but faces no penalty for employing underage children. He attributes this gap to a legislative flaw in Egypt’s Child Law, which excludes child labor in purely agricultural work, in clear violation of international conventions.

Hilal points out that children engaged in seasonal agricultural labor who die in transport-related accidents or suffer workplace injuries rarely see justice served. Their employers are not prosecuted for illegal child labor, but rather under occupational safety regulations. He notes that although a comprehensive proposal was submitted to amend legislation—aimed at addressing safety standards and transportation classifications—it has yet to gain traction with the relevant authorities. “There is no law that criminalizes forcing an injured child to keep working,” he explains. “At most, the employer faces minor penalties under the Work Injuries Law—penalties that fall far short of addressing the real dangers of child labor.”

Women farmers harvesting peas in the Dakahlia region of Egypt.
Photo by: Sohad El-Khodary

Hilal called for legislative amendments to both the Child Law and Labor Law, urging that child labor be criminalized and agricultural labor be formally regulated under legal provisions that safeguard children from the dangers of what he described as one of the worst forms of labor. He emphasized that due to gaps in national legislation and the absence of a dedicated law for their protection, children working in agriculture remain outside the framework of legal oversight—leaving their working hours unregulated and their rights unprotected.

Hesham El-Hosary, Chairman of the Agriculture Committee in the House of Representatives, stated that the use of unsafe transportation and the employment of underage children in agricultural labor—especially when injured children are forced to continue working—constitute clear legal violations. He stressed the importance of ensuring all agricultural workers meet the legal working age, and affirmed that any employer found hiring children is subject to strict legal penalties. El-Hosary also noted that a delegation from the European Union had visited jasmine fields in Gharbia Governorate, where importing companies made it a condition that no children be involved in the harvesting process and provided support to ensure compliance with child labor regulations.

The investigative reporter reached out to Abdel Wahab Khadr, Head of Public Relations at the Ministry of Labor and the Public Relations Department at the Social Insurance Authority, but received no response to inquiries by the time of publication. All individuals interviewed for this investigation provided informed consent.

This investigation was produced under the “Qayd Majhoul” Fellowship, launched by Women Who Won the War.

Souhad El-Khodary

Souhad El-Khodary is an independent investigative journalist, editor, and fact-checker with 14 years of experience in the field. She has contributed to numerous cross-border investigative projects and collaborates with ARIJ Network, CNN Arabic, and Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. El-Khodary won the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate’s Environmental Journalism Award in 2018, was shortlisted for the AIPS Sport Media Awards in 2021, received the Pamela Howard Forum on Global Crisis Reporting Award in 2022, and was awarded the Free Press Unlimited Climate Change Reporting Prize in 2024.