ナイル川にバス転落、児童労働者９人死亡　エジプト

【カイロＡＦＰ＝時事】エジプトの首都カイロ近郊で２１日、ナイル川を航行中のフェリーから小型バスが転落し、農場労働者の女性少なくとも１０人が死亡した。うち９人は児童労働者だった。保健省が明らかにした。（写真は、農園労働者１０人を乗せたまま、ナイル川に水没した小型バス〈手前〉。エジプトの首都カイロ北西約５０キロのアブガリブ村付近で）
　現場はカイロの北西約５０キロにあるアブガリブ村。保健省の報道官はＡＦＰに「死者数は１０人だが、さらに増える可能性がある」と語った。
　日刊紙アルアハラムによると、運転士が降車しようとする乗客の一人と「口論」になり、サイドブレーキを解除したとされる。
　運転士は逃走を試みたが、逮捕されたという。
　犠牲者は全員、同じ「輸出向けの果樹園」で働いていた。同紙が公表した名簿によると、４０歳の１人を除く９人は１６歳以下で、うち２人は１３歳だった。
　エジプトで通勤時の交通事故は珍しくない。特に農民や労働者が過積載のフェリーで移動しているナイル川や周辺の川沿いの農業地帯で頻発している。
　公式統計によると、アラブ諸国で人口最多のエジプトでは、少なくとも１３０万人の子どもが何らかの形で児童労働に従事している。
　国際労働機関によれば、その大半は家業の農場を無償で手伝っている。
　しかし、農業労働の実態を幅広く研究している農村社会学者のサケル・ヌール氏によれば、子どもたちが輸出向けの大規模農場に働きに出される場合も多い。
　「このような事故が繰り返し起こるのは、子どもたち自身の言葉を借りれば、『イワシのように』小型バスに詰め込まれ、『ひどい環境』の仕事に行かされるからだ」と同氏はＡＦＰに語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/05/22-16:38）

At least 10 female farm workers, nine of them children, died in Egypt on Tuesday when a minibus plunged off a river ferry and into the Nile northwest of Cairo, the health ministry said.
The toll is at 10 and could rise, ministry spokesman Hossam Abdelghaffar told AFP.
Reporting the accident, the state's flagship Al-Ahram newspaper said the driver, who had released the handbrake, was arrested while trying to flee.
He had a verbal argument with one of the passengers before getting out of the bus, the paper said.
Two of the victims -- all of whom worked on an export-oriented fruit farm -- were 13 years old, according to a list published by Al-Ahram.
The rest were 16 and younger, except for one victim who was identified as a 40-year old woman.
The vehicle sank at the village of Abu Ghalib, some 50 kilometres (31 miles) northwest of the capital.
Villagers used small wooden boats to row out and help search-and-rescue workers look for survivors, as relatives waited anxiously on the banks of the narrow stretch of the Nile.
A crane was finally able to lift the minibus from the water, after rescuers and locals had swum out to extract victims from the windows of the submerged vehicle.
Nine injured passengers -- most of them also minors, according to al-Ahram's list -- were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, the health ministry said in a statement.
A search operation was ongoing into the evening for five more passengers who were unaccounted for, Al-Ahram said.
The ministry of social solidarity said it would provide financial compensation to the families of the deceased and injured.
After carrying out an initial investigation at the scene, the public prosecutor's office ordered a technical inspection of the minibus to try to determine the reasons it had plunged into the water, Al-Ahram reported.
Commuter accidents are common in Egypt, especially in agricultural areas along the Nile and adjoining streams, where small, overloaded boats ferry farmers and workers back and forth.
At least 1.3 million children are engaged in some form of child labour in the Arab world's most populous nation, official figures show.
Most do unpaid work on family farms, according to the International Labour Organization.
However, children are also frequently sent to work on large-scale export-oriented farms, according to rural sociologist Saker al-Nour, who has studied agricultural labour conditions extensively.
These accidents happen repeatedly because girls are packed, in their own words, like sardines into these minibuses to go and work in terrible conditions, he told AFP.