The United States Department of State found that hundreds of underage girls in Egypt enter temporary marriages with wealthy tourists in return for monetary payments to their families.
These marriages, called “Summer Marriages,” are not legally binding.
The wealthy men, usually from Saudi Arabia, pay the families between $500 to $5,000 as a type of dowry for the bride. After the summer is over, the girl returns to her family.
These arrangements are often organized by marriage brokers or the girl’s parents.
Source: Milena Veselinovic, “Scandal of ‘summer brides’,” Independent, July 15, 2012.
According to a report in the Business Insider, prostitutes catering to Egyptian men in local coffee shops offer their services for $13 (100 Egyptian Pounds) per encounter.
In hotels such as the Marriott and the Four Seasons in Cairo, prostitutes targeting foreigners charge anywhere from $450 per hour to thousands of dollars for overnight visits.
(World Prostitute Prices.)
Source: Robert Johnson, “Egypt After The Revolution: There’s Not Much To Sell But Sex,” Business Insider, April 5, 2013.
In previous years, the buyers of ivory in Egypt were from Spain, Italy and the United States. In 2013, the dynamics of the market shifted to Asia, where buyers from China now account for over 50 percent of the illegal ivory sales in Egypt.
Cairo is a major wildlife trafficking center due to its geographic location between Africa and Europe. Great apes are smuggled to Cairo and then sent to the Gulf Region, China and Europe in order to meet the demand. In September 2012, authorities seized 17 endangered falcons at Cairo International Airport, and then seized a live cobra a man was carrying in his carry-on luggage the next month.
Source: Kira Walker, “Egypt remains a hot spot for illegal chimp and ivory trade,” Egypt Independent, March 24, 2013.
A medical technician and four other people were fined by an Egyptian court for selling blood on the black market.
The group would bring street children to an apartment and give them $1.48 (10 Egyptian Pounds) and a meal in order to draw blood. The group would then sell a bag of blood on the black market for $12.61 (85 Pounds).
Source: Al-Masry Al-Youm, “Five imprisoned for trafficking blood of street children,” Egypt Independent, February 27, 2013.
According to a report by British American Tobacco Egypt, up to $663 Million is lost each year due to illegal cigarette smuggling activities in the country. At least 20 percent of the 84 billion cigarettes smoked in Egypt each year was obtained on the black market.
The annual losses represent up to 3 percent of the country’s budget deficit. In the first half of 2011, the Egyptian Government lost tax payments of $26.84 Million.
Source: “Illicit cigarette trade ‘costing Egypt $663m’, Trade Arabia, March 19, 2012.
According to a report by CNN, Bedouin human smugglers drug victims and cut out their organs for sale to doctors in Egypt. The doctors and hospitals pay up to $20,000 for the trafficked organs.
Source: Fred Pletgen and Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, “Refugees face organ theft in the Sinai,” CNN, November 3, 2011.
Piracy of paid television in the Arab region causes losses of $500 Million a year, according to a media research firm. 8 percent of Arab households that watch television actually pay for the services through cable or satellite. The remaining 92 percent of views in the region pirate the broadcast.
In Lebanon, an estimated 99 percent of television viewers are pirating their cable signal. In Egypt, around 10 million households are receiving pirated cable feeds.
Source: Ben Flanagan, “Piracy hijacks growth of pay-TV,” National, November 3, 2011.
Cigarette smuggling in Egypt causes tax losses of $26.84 Million (160 Million Egyptian Pounds) in the first half of 2011. Out of the entire cigarette market in Egypt, 2.1 percent of cigarettes were smuggled in the first six months of the year, compared to 0.1 percent in 2010. The increase was attributed to an increase in the cigarette tax.
Source: Mohamed Ahmed el-Saadani, “Cigarette smuggling costs government LE160 million,” Almasry Alyoum, August 28, 2011.
Illegal kidney brokers who arranged people from Yemen to sell their kidney for patients in Egypt received commission payments of up to $60,000 per kidney.
The sellers of kidneys received $5,000, although many were targeted for robbery on their way home.
Source: AFP, “Yemeni arrested for organ trafficking,” Google News, June 25, 2010.
An estimated 20,000 people were working in the smuggling tunnels of Gaza in June 2010.
Source: Associated Press, “Ordinary Gazans hurt most by 3-year blockade,” Google News, June 11, 2010.
