Campaign push in Egypt

Plan called on the Egyptian government to allow more children to be registered by extending its two-week free registration period for newborns and removing the risk of a fine or arrest for late registration, during a conference on universal birth registration.

During Plan’s Egypt national conference, 18-year-old Ibrahim took to the stage to tell government officials that he couldn’t get a job and even risked arrest because he didn’t have a birth certificate. He explained that his father had lost his ID and deserted the family when he was very young and that that was the reason why his mother was not able to register him. This meant that Ibrahim couldn’t go to school and was unable to find a decent job.

Ibrahim said: “I feel so insecure when I walk in the street, because at any time a police officer can stop me and ask for my ID, which I do not have, and if he finds out that I do not have ID he could then arrest me. Thank God this has not happened to me before, but it could.

“I am very fed up with life since I cannot work in a proper place – when I apply the first thing the employer asks me is whether I have an ID or not, which of course I do not. Therefore I cannot support my family, since the jobs that I work in pay extremely low wages.

“Even one day when I fall in love and want to get married, I will not be able to because I have no ID to prove my existence as an Egyptian citizen. I really would like to have a birth certificate one day. I am sure it will make my life easier in so many ways.” 

Registration levels in Egypt have varied from total coverage in urban areas to around 93 per cent in slums, rural and remote Bedouin areas.

As a result of the conference, Ibrahim was given an opportunity to receiving his own birth certificate.