Rights group criticizes Egypt's response to Sinai hostages - Summary

Fri, 31 Dec 2010

London/Cairo - A leading Egyptian human rights organization on Friday criticized the government's response to reports that hundreds of African migrants are being held hostage by Bedouin in the Sinai desert.

Authorities deny that hostages are being held in Sinai and have dismissed reports as mere slander against the government.

"The Egyptian position is embarrassing. If they take serious steps we will be able to rescue people and even Egyptians who may be held in Sinai," said Ramy Raouf, the online media officer for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

Raouf was speaking in an interview with the German Press Agency dpa following the publication of a report by the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, who was given rare access to alleged smugglers close to the Israeli border.

Wingfield-Hayes describes how he was driven to a Bedouin tent with five men who were "all people smugglers."

Asked to comment on reports that Africans were being held for ransom and women had been raped and men killed, the Bedouins' answers were evasive, says the report.

"We hear of such tragedies," one man states. "There are people in this business who mistreat migrants."

"It is a very hard journey," he adds. "Some migrants die along the way from thirst or exhaustion."

Pressed to comment on reports that hostages were being held, the man says: "Often the Africans do not have any money, but we still have to feed and house them. Out of 30 maybe only 10 can pay. In this situation we lose money."

According to the report, the Bedouin produced two young African men, including Amar, who says in broken English that he is 15 and from Eritrea.

"As we talk, it rapidly becomes apparent that Amar is being held hostage," reports Wingfield-Hayes.

Asked how much money they were asking for, he said: "Tonight my brother called to say he can send 2,00 dollars. They are trying to make a deal."

Amar, according to the report, is among hundreds being held hostage in the Sinai desert for ransom payments before they attempt their perilous journey to Israel.

The EIPR, along with 12 other locally-based rights groups, signed a letter this week demanding that Egyptian authorities "live up to their obligations under national and international laws and take immediate action to secure the release of the hostages currently detained."

"What is happening there has been happening for a while, but when we spoke with the hostages on the phone, we were able to prove this," said Raouf. The letter, he said, was meant to pressure authorities to acknowledge the crisis.

The situation was brought to international attention when Pope Benedict XVI urged an end to the plight of the migrants who are believed to be held hostage.

A statement released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees earlier this month said that some 250 Eritrean migrants were being held in containers and were subject to abuses, and that some may have been held for months.

According to Friday's BBC report, the "full horror" of what can happen in the desert becomes clear once one crosses the border to Israel, where African migrants receive medical and legal assistance from Israeli non-governmental organizations.

At a Tel Aviv clinic run by the group Physicians for Human Rights, there are hundreds of Eritreans, Ethiopians and Sudanese crowded into the waiting room, the report says.

One young woman, who asks to be called Amira - not her real name - says: "We had been told to pay 2,000 dollars, but when we got to the Sinai they said the price was 3,000," she recalls.

Amira says the men were then forced to watch as their wives were raped.

"They would take me into the front of the pickup and do whatever they liked with me. The distress of this was too much for my husband," Amira says before she falls into uncontrollable weeping, reported Wingfield-Hayes.

Depressed and weakened by the beatings and dehydration, Amira's husband died in the desert, the report adds.

Raouf said that the smugglers will take a family member and abuse them in front of other family members to force a higher ransom payment before smuggling them over to Israel.

Every year thousands of people attempt to cross the border from Egypt into Israel, often from African countries.

In November, the number of migrants coming from Egypt increased to a record high of 700 per week, according to Israel's Population and Immigration Authority. More than 10,000 people have illegally entered Israel so far this year.

Israel began construction last month on a 240-kilometer barrier along its south-western border with Egypt, mostly aimed at preventing the influx of illegal migrants.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360296,sinai-hostages-summary.html.