EGYPT/SUDAN: TRAFFICKERS WHO TORTURE

https://multimedia.hrw.org/distribute/cvyodjnrzt

Embargoed for Release
Not for Publication Until:
10:30 in Berlin, Tuesday 11 February, 2014
09:30 GMT, 11 February 2014

Traffickers have kidnapped, tortured, and killed refugees, most from Eritrea, in eastern Sudan and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Egypt and Sudan have failed to adequately identify and prosecute the traffickers and any security officials who may have colluded with them, breaching both countries’ obligation to prevent torture.

The 79-page report, “‘I Wanted to Lie Down and Die:’ Trafficking and Torture of Eritreans in Sudan and Egypt,” documents how, since 2010, Egyptian traffickers have tortured hundreds, and likely thousands, of Eritreans for ransom in the Sinai Peninsula, including through rape, burning, and mutilation. It also documents torture by traffickers in eastern Sudan and 29 incidents in which Sudanese and Egyptian security officers facilitated trafficker abuses rather than arresting them and rescuing their victims. Egyptian officials deny there are trafficker abuses in Sinai, allowing it to become a safe haven for traffickers.

VIDEO FEATURE PRODUCED BY HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

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RAW VIDEO FOOTAGE

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PHOTOGRAPHS

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  An Eritrean man shows the wounds he says traffickers inflicted on him in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to force him and his relatives to pay ransom for his release.
  © 2013 Tom Dale for Human Rights Watch