Agenzia Habeshia - Italy וו Release Eritrea – United Kingdom
International
Commission on Eritrean Refugees (ICER) – United States
Eritrean Movement
for Democracy and Human Rights
(EMDHR) - Sweden
The America Team for
Displaced Eritreans – United
States
Physicians for Human Rights - Israel וו
Hotline for Migrant Workers - Israel
Hundreds of Refugees
Held Hostage in Sinai Torture Camps
Need Rescuing
Claims that a
large number of refugees have been released from Sinai camps following media reports
represents only a partial picture of the current situation on the ground. Human
rights organizations worldwide have come together to publish up-to-date
information in their possession
which shows that the smuggling networks
are still up and running and that hundreds of refugee hostages are being tortured by human traffickers in the Sinai.
For
more than 18 months, the chilling
evidence of horrors inflicted by human traffickers on refugees as
they are on their way to Israel
through the Sinai desert has been published and broadcast in Israel and throughout the world. During the past year, the organizations signed on this document have provided
detailed information, systematically
collected, regarding smuggling networks
operating in the Sinai and beyond (Israel, Ethiopia, and Sudan) to influential bodies
in the international
arena including diplomats,
the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR),
Amnesty
International and the Israeli
authorities. Despite these numerous appeals, and the concrete nature of the
information that was transferred,
the detention camps, the extortion,
and the torture continue.
Throughout the past year, Israeli,
American, and European human rights organizations
have been in continuous contact with Eritrean and Sudanese refugees held in the
torture camps in Sinai. Refugee
hostages use cellular telephones provided by their captors
to extort large sums of ransom money
from their relatives and friends. Despite recent
reports in the media regarding the release of hundreds of refugees held
captive in the Sinai, and their arrival in Israel, it is apparent – from the
information gathered by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel
and the Hotline for Migrant
Workers in Israel, Agenzia Habeshia
in Italy, Release Eritrea in the
UK, the International Commission on Eritrean Refugees
(ICER), the America Team for Displaced
Eritreans and the Swedish Eritrean Movement
for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR) – that hundreds of refugees are
still being held captive in the Sinai, some of which are experiencing physical
abuse, torture, systematic rape, and even death, all with the objective to
obtain tens of thousands of dollars in ransom money in exchange for their release. Heinous methods of torture and extortion,
as previously
reported, including in a recent report
by Amnesty
International include prolonged group bondage, electroshock, suspension by the
limbs, burns from white-hot irons, starvation, severe sexual abuse, etc.
Information
presented in this document shows that despite recent reports,
the people smuggling, trafficking, and torture
in the Sinai desert continue to operate as usual.
Updated Information on Groups Currently Held in Egypt
Group of Approximately 165 Hostages
On the 16th and 17th
of November, 2011, rights organization
The Hotline for Migrant Workers was contacted several times by 3 hostages
that are part of a larger group of 165 Eritrean refugees currently being held hostage.
According to their reports, they are under the control of a trafficker
named Samieh, nicknamed Abu Musa, who leads a group of 8 smugglers in this
compound. According to the
prisoners, the group includes 13 women and 15 unaccompanied minors, ages 14 to 16. The group reports that they are not being held in Sinai but
rather in a bunker in a secluded area north
of the city of Mansoura, 120 kilometer north of Cairo and a 4
hour drive from Ismaila, Egypt.
According
to the refugee held in the bunker, some of whom have been held hostage for several months, the smugglers beat and electroshock
them as a way to pressure them into raising the ransom money. The male hostages
have not left the bunker since they arrived, but every night the smugglers forcibly take the women outside and rape them. According to their reports,
in the last week alone, 5 people have died by electrocution, among them one
woman. On November 17th, they reported
that an additional 2 refugees were electrocuted. They informed
the Hotline for Migrant Workers that some of the hostages arrived at the
compound after being sold to Samieh's group after paying large ransoms to other
traffickers in separate locations. They are currently being ransomed for 30,000 dollars. The contact information for
the refugee hostages in this camp can be provided by the organizations
signed on this document.
Group of 59 Hostages
On the 17th of November, Father
Mussie Zerai of the organization
Ageniza Habeshia was contacted by several hostages that are part of a larger
group of 59 Eritrean refugees, which include 8 women, 2 in late-term pregnancy. The
refugees told Father Mussie Zerai and Swedish journalist Meron Estefanos, representative
of the EMDHR organization, that the smugglers
are demanding 23,000 dollars for the
release of each one of the hostages. People from this group have repeatedly
contacted Ms. Estefanos and have told her about one woman hostage who is 7
months pregnant and is in this Sinai compound after being kidnapped in Sudan by
smugglers who then raped her many times. The smugglers in Sudan demanded 3,000 dollars for her release, and when she could not pay this
money, she was sold to other smugglers. The current smugglers are demanding
23,000 dollars and have made it clear that if she does not come up with the
money by the time of her delivery, she will be forced
to pay an additional 23,000 dollars for
the infant. On the 18th of November, Ms. Estefanos was informed that a 22 year-old male hostage from this
group died by electrocution. According
to information gathered by Father
Mussie Zerai, two weeks ago 22 refugee hostages have joined this group.
The 59 hostages are being guarded and tortured by 4 smugglers. According
to reports from the hostages, the
smugglers are also led by a man named Samieh, nicknamed Abu Musa, meaning he is
probably the same smuggler leading the group of 165 hostages described above. The
group is supposedly being held hostage in a compound in the north of Sinai, not far from the city Rafah. Refugees
reported that while they were outdoors, they heard aircraft engine sounds and saw
lights from what appeared to be control towers, leading them to conclude that
they are in proximity to an airfield. They report
that alongside where they are being held are 3 luxurious houses, a large yard,
and a tall tree. Two of the homes are striking in their appearance as they are
painted red and constructed like a Chinese pagoda.
Group of 111 Hostages
On the 16th of November,
additional hostages made contact with Meron Estefanos, from the EMDHR in Sweden.
They report that on the 8th
of November, they were transferred from Sudan to the Sinai by smugglers that
are demanding 28,000 dollars in ransom from each person. According to the information
gathered, this is a group held separately from the previous 2 groups and as of
the time of publication their approximate whereabouts and information about their captors
remain unknown.
Group of 17 Hostages
A Sudanese refugee from Darfur,
currently residing in Israel, told a Physicians for
Human Rights-Israel activist that he is in contact with a group of 17 Sudanese
refugees, mostly from Darfur, that are currently being held in the Sinai. The
smugglers, led by a man known as Mohammed (nicknamed Abdallah) from the Sawarka
tribe, are torturing the refugees
and demanding from each of them 5,200 dollars. The hostages report that they are being held near Al Jorra village, which is located 60 kilometers south
of Sheikh Zewaid and 30
kilometers from Bagdad,
Sinai. The 17 Sudanese refugees are the remaining hostages of a larger group
that was released after they paid the ransom money. Some of the refugees
released from this group are currently in Israel. The contact information of the smuggler can be obtained from the organizations.
370 Additional Refugees
A representative of the EMDHR received
information that on the 12th
of November 170 Eritreans and on the 15th of November another 200
Eritreans were transferred from Sudan
to the Sinai.
Current
Information about Smugglers and
Collaborators
In testimonies collected by human rights
organizations over the past year,
the names of several prominent smugglers have been continuously repeated, among
them, Abu Abdullah, Abu Musa, Abu Ali, Ibrahim, Khaled and Ahmed.
In the group of the 165 refugees that
are currently being held in the area of Mansoura,
Egypt by Abu
Musa, the refugees reported that
seven additional smugglers are guarding them, including Abu Musa’s bothers – Ali
Hamed and Salim. The place is frequented by a smuggler named Abu
Hamed; it is unclear whether this is an additional smuggler or Abu Musa’s brother, Ali Hamed. Refugees who were sold
by Abu Hamed to Abu Musa informed us
that Abu Hamed runs several additional chambers each holding dozens of refugees
and they are located a few kilometers away from where they are currently being
held. Reports collected by human
rights groups indicate that Abu Musa works
with the assistance of an Eritrean living in Israel. The Israeli police have
been officially informed about this
suspected cooperation.
Abu Abdullah is another
smuggler that is continuously mentioned in refugee testimonies and is described
as a large man in his mid-thirties that works
with his brother out of Sinai. Abu Abdullah works
closely with an Eritrean man nick-named Cornell
who is responsible for collecting
ransom money sent to Egypt
by hostages' relatives and for
managing a network of collaborators
in Israel.
According to victim's testimonies,
these smugglers use Israeli cell phone numbers to be in contact with relatives
of the hostages.
Additional testimonies collected by the organizations indicate that an Eritrean man named Angosom,
based in Khartoum, Sudan, is responsible for
kidnapping hundreds of Eritrean refugees from Shagarab and Kassala refugee
camps in Sudan and from May Aini and Shimelba refugee camps in Ethiopia and
then selling them to human traffickers in Egypt.
Over the past year, the Open Clinic of
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel
interviewed about 800 patients that arrived to Israel via the Sinai. 78% of
interviewees described
being subjected to torture by smugglers
that threatened them at gunpoint while locking them up in chains.
In addition to the horrid testimonies of torture
and captivity, 39 people reported to
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel that
they were kidnapped by the smugglers and arrived at Israel against their will. On
November 7, 2011, a
Hotline for Migrant Worker's volunteer interviewed an Eritrean refugee
who was held for six months until he
managed to raise and pay the smugglers 10,000 dollars. He reported that he had no desire to go to Israel but that he was kidnapped in February 2011 in Kassala, Sudan
along with another 84 Eritrean refugees. The refugee explained that while the
group was on their way to Shagarab refugee camp, they were kidnapped and sold
to smugglers who took them to the Sinai desert. Meron Estefanos, from the organization EMDHR, spoke to members of the
kidnapped group and confirmed this report.
In February 2011, Father Mussie Zerai from Agenzia Habeshia spoke to one of the
hostages that reported being chained
to an 11-year-old that recently had his arm broken by the smugglers. The child
cried in pain but the smugglers refused to let him go. In the past two months,
a few refugees from this group have arrived in Israel, after being tortured and held hostage for
months and after gathering the ransom which ranged from a few thousand dollars
to $35,000 per person from their families around the world.
The fate of the 11 year old child, as well as the fate of many others, is
unknown.
One week ago, Egyptian media reported about violent confrontations between tribes in
central Sinai after accusations of being involved in trafficking of refugee organs. The media claims that one of the main smugglers was
killed during the fighting.
Information
transferred to the Israeli authorities
regarding collaborators with smuggling networks
that are based in Israel
While the Israeli police do not have the
mandate to directly investigate individuals that are suspected of committing
crimes in Egyptian territory, the Israeli
police are obligated to act regarding operatives that are based in Israel.
The Israeli organizations who wrote
this report have transferred a great
deal of information about suspected criminals
that collaborate with the human
traffickers, by extorting and
collecting ransom money inside of Israel. The activists in these organizations have even met several times with
representatives in the relevant police unit. Eritrean refugees living in Israel joined these meetings, following requests
by the organizations, and they
provided valuable information about
human trafficking operatives in Israel. None of the suspected criminals have been
detained by the police.
On December 12, 2010, activists from the Hotline for Migrant Workers
managed to orchestrate the arrest of
2 Eritreans while they collected ransom money from a relative of a refugee held
hostage. Even though the two were caught while conducting the transfer, they
were soon released from prison and not put on trial. Inquiries from an Israeli
human rights group as to whether charges will be pressed have yet to be answered.
On July 31, 2011, Physicians for
Human Rights-Israel and the Hotline for
Migrant Workers sent a joint letter
to the police with the phone numbers of 12 suspected collaborators living
in Israel that are under suspicion of assisting the human traffickers in Sinai,
as well as the license plate number of a car driven by of one of them. No reply
has been received to this appeal.
On August 17, 2011, a Hotline for
Migrant Workers staff member sent an
e-mail to the Israeli police asking them to follow a suspect who was about to
collect ransom money in Tel Aviv. Despite attempts to reach the relevant police
unit via telephone, the ransom money was given to the suspect without the Israeli
police being present during the transaction.
On September 5, 2011, two more
complaints were filed with the Israeli police. The first complaint involved
three refugees who were kidnapped from Israel and taken to Egypt (last week it
was reported
in Israel that one of the refugees had been killed and the other two are being
kept in an Egyptian prison where they face deportation
orders back to Eritrea). A relative
of one of the kidnapped refugees who lives in Israel filed a complaint with the
police. A second complaint was filed by an Eritrean refugee regarding the entry
of an Eritrean smuggler into Israel
who was involved in the torture and
rape of refugees in Sinai. On the same day, an activist from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel provided the police with information about additional suspected collaborators that
operate within Israel to
help the human traffickers in the Sinai Peninsula.
On September 18, 2011 another complaint was
filed by an Eritrean refugee regarding an Israeli citizen to whom he paid money
in order to free his relative that was
being held hostage in Sinai.
The organizations
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, Hotline
for Migrant Workers,
Agenzia Habeshia, International Commission on Eritrean
Refugees, The America Team for
Displaced Eritreans, Eritrean
Movement for Democracy and Human
Rights, and Release
Eritrea call again on the Egyptian and Israeli authorities
and the international community to act quickly in order
to free the refugees held hostage in the Sinai, to prosecute the smugglers and
those that assist them, to bring an immediate
end to the torture camps and the
network of human trafficking, and to
provide care for the torture survivors.
For more
information please contact:
Shahar Shoham-
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel: shahar@phr.org.il
Sigal Rozen-
Hotline for Migrants Workers: sigal@hotline.org.il
john@eritreanrefugees.orgJohn
Stauffer- The America Team for
Displaced Eritreans:
Dr. Yonas Mehari- ICER
(International Commission on Eritrean Refugees:
Meron Estefanos-
EMDHR (Eritrean Movement for
Democracy and Human Rights):
