Billionaire Sawiris bails out Port Said's smuggling kids, offers them jobs

CAIRO – 5 August 2018: Billionaire and business tycoon Naguib Sawiris has bailed out some teenagers who were caught smuggling clothes on Friday and offered to immediately employ them starting Monday, Sawiris’ lawyer Ibrahim Edward told Egypt Today on Sunday.

Edward added that he headed to Port Said to finish all the necessary paperwork for the release of the teenagers.

On Saturday, Adel al-Ghadhban, governor of Port Said, apologized for the video that was circulated on social media featuring the teenagers being interviewed in an “extremely disturbing way”.

In a phone call with DMC satellite channel on Friday, the governor pointed out that Port Said lacks professional media interviewers who can handle such situations, offering an apology to the teenagers who appeared in the video.

He noted that the police arrest smugglers with the aim to protect Egyptian society and prevent manipulation of children in smuggling operations.

The video labeled “smuggling kids” went viral on Wednesday and stirred up anger among social media users because of the way the TV interviewer interviewed these teenagers, in which she kept on pushing and throwing guilts on them by numerously asking them why they chose to work as smugglers instead of working decent jobs.