Ministry: We Won't Accept Support From USAID to NGOs Except Under Government Control

The Ministry of Social Affairs affirmed that it is neither against foreign funding nor stopping receiving grants, and did not prevent any NGO from receiving financial support from abroad. However, the ministry said this gloomy period makes it necessary to be careful.

Mohamed el-Demerdash, the legal advisor of the ministry, and a member of the team that prepared the draft law of NGOs, said current investigations carried out over foreign funds received by NGOs do not aim at conviction. Rather such investigation can be also a tool to prove that somebody is innocent, he added.

He noted that seven NGOs only receive funds from USAID. It is not seemly that the United States announces that these funds are paid from US taxpayers, he said affirming that Egypt will not allow foreign funding for NGOs without governmental control like it was in the past.

All NGOs in Egypt are subject to investigation and the issue is not restricted to organizations working in the human rights field, he added stressing that the new bill on NGOs is just a draft law that civil society organizations should contribute to its development.