Government continues campaign against squatters

CAIRO – 20 May 2017: The government reclaimed Thursday a 200,000 square meters of state-owned land seized by Mubarak-era Minister of Tourism Zuhair Garana while a tight crackdown is being carried against land squatters.

This came in line with the directives of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to the police and the army forces to investigate adverse possession of land and reclaim the illegally acquired state lands.

The disputed land seized by the former official had been allocated to the Tourism Development Authority, but Garana, who owned a hotel close to the area, illegally acquired it, sources said.

The sources noted that Garana had rented the land at the beginning, but refused to pay or evacuate it later after the Tourism Development Authority raised the rent value.

The Red Sea governorate announced its campaign succeeded to reclaim approximately 8.3 million meters only on Thursday that were illegally seized in all Red Sea cities.

During a Tuesday press meeting, Sisi said that those who will resort to violence to resist the law will be confronted by force. He said that the outcomes of campaigns against squatters on state lands will be announced in an extended conference by the end of May.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Agriculture continued its campaign against violations released a report on Saturday, and noted that nearly 1,700,165 transgression cases on75, 674 feddans (1 feddan= 1.038 acres) were reported since January 2011 until May 14, 2017.

Only 28 percent of the transgressions were cleared by the Central Administration for Land Protection, the report stated. Moreover, the administration stressed it will coordinate with governorates nationwide so as to facilitate the concerned authorities’ mission and to “preserve the upcoming generations’ rights.”