UK Brushes Off Human Rights Controversy to Promote Business with Egypt

It is the UK's biggest trade delegation to Egypt "in a generation," officials say. Today, a party of more than 40 companies has been escorted there by an elected member of parliament for five days of networking aimed at boosting British business interests in a country heavily criticized for its human rights abuses.

"UKTI are offering an exclusive program of high-level events to promote British companies, brands and expertise in the energy, retail and infrastructure/construction sectors," states a promotional flyer from government department UK Trade & Investment to investors. "And we would like you to be involved."

Fronted by MP and foreign office minister Tobias Ellwood, the trip offers "specific and targeted opportunities" for UK investors, including "tailored briefings, seminars, networking opportunities, site visits, and B2B meetings."

— Jason Ivory (@JasonIvoryCairo)January 11, 2015

A look at Egypt's human rights record over the last three years, however, suggests that the task of engaging with the country economically without risking British integrity is a delicate one. In the flyer promoting the trip, the social and political instability that has dogged Egypt since the 2011 ousting of autocrat Hosni Mubarak is alluded to as the "difficult years," during which "the market size meant continued profitably [sic] and growth for the established British companies in Europe."

The country is now returning to "accelerating growth after three years of political economic slow-down," the flyer promises.

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The trifling matter of human rights abuses may have been a buzzkill for UKTI's promotional team — but it is something that Prime Minister David Cameron raised with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in September 2014.

Expressing an interest in building "practical partnerships" in Egypt, he urged the president to "ensure human rights are respected" in the fight against extremism, including "addressing the large numbers of people in custody and the widespread use of death sentences."

Egypt's mass trials have been enormously controversial. In 2014, a judge condemned 529 supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi to death for the murder of a police officer — one of two mass sentences that UN human rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay described as "outrageous." This year, 494 people, including Irish teenager Ibrahim Halawa, face the death sentence following a clash between Morsi supporters and security forces.

The Foreign Office did not name the companies that will be attending the trade delegation.

Maya Foa, a spokeswoman for Reprieve, a NGO that assists people facing the death penalty, said: "It beggars belief that the UK is taking a 'business as usual' approach to a country where hundreds of people, including children, face potential death sentences in farcical mass trials.

"If David Cameron's proclamations about the need for human rights in Egypt are to be believed, why is his government boasting about its biggest trade visit there in 15 years?"

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A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson told VICE News: "This trade mission is evidence of how Britain is committed to helping the Egyptian people build a successful future for their country.

"It is just one of many ways that Britain is providing concrete, practical support to build an Egypt that is more prosperous but is also more secure and democratic as well.

"Protecting and upholding the fundamental human rights contained within the Egyptian constitution is essential to building a stable, prosperous, and democratic Egypt. We hope the Egyptian government will take further action to release journalists and political detainees who remain imprisoned, and to remove restrictions on civil society."

Follow Ben Bryant on Twitter: @benbryant