Outside the tiny airport in Assiut, southern Egypt, hundreds of men, many wearing the dark flowing robes of the countryside, sit on a pavement waiting to be called in to board a plane that will take them to work on the construction sites of one or another of the oil-rich countries of the region.
For generations, the men of Upper Egypt have left their impoverished villages on the banks of the Nile to seek a living in Cairo or further afield in the Gulf states and Libya.
