Amnesty to egypt: Stop enforced eviction of slum-dwellers

Egyptian authorities and political parties must put the rights of the country's 12 million slum-dwellers at the top of their agenda, says Amnesty International. “People living in Egypt's slums must be given a say in finding solutions to their dire housing conditions, but the authorities are failing to respect their human rights,” Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said. “When slum residents dare to object, they face unlawful forced evictions and arbitrary arrest under repressive laws,” Allen warned. In a new report, the London-based human rights advocacy called on Egyptian authorities to meet the demands for social justice and human dignity championed during the “25 January Revolution”. The report, ‘We are not dirt’: Forced evictions in Egypt’s informal settlements, comes ahead of the country’s first elections since the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak. It documents cases of forced evictions affecting hundreds of families in the country’s vast slums and describes how people are forcibly evicted from so-called “unsafe areas” where residents' lives or health are said to be at risk. “An acute shortage of affordable housing has driven Egypt's poor to live in slums and informal settlements,” Amnesty said. “Around 40 percent of Egyptians live on or near the US$2 a day poverty line, and the vast majority of the victims killed or injured during the “25 January Revolution” came from underprivileged backgrounds.” The 123-page report, based on two years' research, documents the Egyptian authorities' failure to consult communities living in “unsafe areas” on plans to address their inadequate housing conditions. According to official sources, an estimated 850,000 people live in areas deemed “unsafe” by the authorities, while some 18,300 housing units in Egypt are at risk of imminent collapse.