Hagar Talaab, a woman in her 30s from Desouk, a city in Kafr El Sheikh put her children up for sale in the street, with an indicative banner that read “3 children for sale, a child for accommodation, a child for medical treatment, and a child for food.”

After not being able to pay the rent of their one bed room apartment, Talaab and her disabled husband and children were forced out and left with no place to go.

Talaab told Al-Masry Al-Youm that she appealed to the former city mayor, Bassiouny Zaid, who granted her family temporary accommodation in the form of a small shop but with no papers to prove their ownership. The city council then sold this shop, forcing the family out.

Talaab explained that after the amputation of her husband's leg, he was unable to work; meaning this shop was her only source of income. She also has one child who is diagnosed with a chronic disease, and suffers from continuous and serious vomiting.

She did not want money, but only wanted accommodation for her and her family, or for the city council to withdraw the shop from the new owner and give her papers proving their ownership of the place, she said.

Main photo credits: Al-Masry Al Youm