Early in the morning, stone transport trucks exit the village of Al-Dayaba in the governorate of Al-Minya carrying around 30 workers, on their way to the limestone quarries some 40 KM away, where workers spend their days under a heavy blanket of white dust with only a woolen scarf or a worn out cloth to protect their faces.
Mahmoud Atif, a 13 years old boy operates a stone cutting machine and has a scar above his right eyebrow marking an injury he received when he tripped on a limestone block while uploading stones onto the dump trucks.
According to a study conducted by Al-Nil Association for the Protection of Quarry Workers, child laborers make up around 23% of the total number of workers in this sector.
Our investigation conducted a field survey between December 2021 and March 2022, and covered 50 child laborer cases has revealed the widespread use of young children as laborers at limestone quarries, violating national and international laws which classify work in quarries as a hazardous type of work.
This investigation has also documented the work related injuries sustained by 42 child workers due to the lack of professional safety measures and the absence of any supervision by child protection agencies.
The hazardous nature of quarry work violates the “Worst Forms of Child Labor” convention, that requires its signatories, including Egypt to take measures to stop any work that endangers the health of a child.
In 1996, Egypt had enacted the Child Law which allows the employment of children aged 15 and older, provided that the work “is not hazardous to their health, development and does not interfere with their education.”
The noisy sound of heavy machinery is the first thing that strikes you when you set foot in Al-Minya quarries, as electrical block saws, drills and tractors dig through the layers of solid rock.
Uncovered high voltage cables litter the place as they are used extensively to operate the heavy machinery and run through the length of the tracks of moving machinery throughout the quarry.
We visited 10 of the 172 quarries scattered along 300 km east of Al-Minya city, where we observed hundreds of laborers at work without any protective gears for their hands or faces while handling limestones and other construction material.
According to a 2010 survey conducted by Al-Nil Association for Protecting Quarry Workers, child workers make up 23% of the total number of quarry workers.
The Union of Quarry Workers estimates that there are 55 thousand laborers working in Al-Minya’s quarries alone.
Three years ago, Mahmoud Atif started working at the quarries following in the footsteps of his father who became unemployed due to a work injury. The family found itself forced to send young Mahmoud to work in the same occupation that caused his father’s disability.
Quarries have been offering employment to children of the age of Mahmoud and even for some as young as 9 years of age.
As Mahmoud grew older his daily rate has increased to reach 50 EGP/per day (less than $3), but the tasks he had to do became more difficult and the scar on his forehead is a witness to that. Despite his injuries, the young 13 year old continues to work at the quarries this time accompanied by his younger brother.
According to the Director of the Union of Quarries Workers, Mohammad Sayyed Abdul Ghani, children’s work in quarries violates all laws and conventions pertaining to child rights, in addition they are constantly exposed as they labor in an environment that lacks the most basic standards of industrial and occupational safety standards. These children laborers do not benefit from any health insurance or social security cover since their work is considered a type of irregular labor.
In January 2020, Egypt promulgated the Executive Regulations of the Mineral Resources Law which listed the conditions for granting quarry permits and violation penalties.
But those regulations did not take into account the poor working conditions of quarry workers, to the dismay of the union, which proposed making worker insurance compulsory, and a condition for granting quarry permits.
Even the penalties stipulated by the Egyptian Labor Law were flimsy when compared to those stipulated by the Mineral Resources Law.
Abdul Ghani says that the proposal to make workers insurance a condition for issuing quarry permits was completely ignored which enabled quarry owners to continue their mistreatment of workers.
One quarry company owner admits that 200 of his workers do not have any form of insurance, and that customary practices take precedence in the quarries over the laws regulating their employment. In the event of a worker’s death, the quarry owner pays his family a sum of money as compensation, without resorting to any legal proceedings.
death, the quarry owner pays his family a sum of money as compensation, without resorting to any legal proceedings.
This was what we found when examining the police investigation reports covering the case of 18 year old quarry worker Mohammad Nadi, who died as a result of his work injury.
The incident was recorded as having no criminal suspicions, so no legal action was taken against the quarry owner.
In order to avoid the lengthy litigation process, the deceased’s family chose to accept a reconciliation process that calls upon the factory owner to compensate them on the basis of “wrongful death”, as it is known in the traditional local practices.
Absence of industrial safety standards at limestone quarries has led to 70 death cases recorded in 2010 by the Association of Quarry Workers. The director of the association Hussam Wasfi, expects that this figure might increase to over 150 in 2017.
This investigation randomly selected 50 children who worked either regularly or irregularly at the quarries. Analysis of their data showed that 84% had suffered deep wounds on the job.
According to Abber Abdul Rahman, a nurse at the Dayaba clinic, the absence of industrial safety standards at limestone quarries has catastrophic consequences.
Injured quarry workers, most of whom are children, often walk into the clinic, “ bleeding in the head, or legs or hands, and if their injuries are not serious, I treat their wounds, stitching, bandaging and follow up.”
Patients records at Al- Dayaba village clinic shows that during the first half of this year, 30-40 children are injured each month without indicating the type of injuries. Nurse Abeer has confirmed though that most are work related injuries resulting from child labor at the quarries.
According to a survey conducted by Al-Nil Association and published by the Union of Quarry Workers in 2019, the number of work related injuries of children at the quarries reached 115.
For the past five years, the job of Abdul-Aal, 14 years old, has been to collect the sawdust from the cutting machines.
He says: “There are times when I am unable to breathe or sleep especially on windy days. The dust gets into my nose and mouth and I cannot speak or sleep.”
The particles resulting from stone cutting are called “Silica dust”. Doctor Sameh Wahba, a pulmonology and allergy consultant in Al-Minya, says that the daily exposure to silica dust leads to chest allergies and shortness of breath, in addition to difficulties sleeping and lethargy. Increased exposure to these particles may exasperate symptoms and lead, on the long run, to Silicosis.
A 2010 study conducted by Al-Nil Association for Protecting Quarry Workers in the eastern villages of Al-Minya showed that Silicosis is the leading disease affecting quarry workers, especially children.
