Egypt has been concealing information about 250 Eritrean refugees reportedly being held hostage by human traffickers in the Sinai Peninsula, an Italian human rights watchdog stated on Thursday.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hossam Zaki on Tuesday said that Egyptian security authorities had not found any clues to suggest that Eritrean refugees were being held in the area.
"We called on whoever has any information to present it to the Egyptian authorities, but no one has presented any," said Zaki in a statement.
"The Egyptian government is making itself an accomplice in this humanitarian tragedy,” said Matteo Pegoraro, co-president of EveryOneGroup, an Italy-based human rights group that has followed the case for more than one month.
“The [Egyptian] foreign ministry is not telling the truth,” Pegoraro told Al-Masry Al-Youm.
He added that his organization had provided the Egyptian government with “all the information necessary” for finding the refugees, who are reportedly being held captive on the outskirts of the northern border city of Rafah.
The Italian activist said that his NGO had received detailed information on the case via direct telephone calls with some of the hostages. He explained that this communication had been facilitated by Don Mussie Zerai, an Eritrean priest residing in Italy and founder of human rights organization Agenzia Habeshia.
The hostages were able to get in touch with the priest via telephone after the kidnappers demanded they use and international phone to call their families to ask for a ransom.
According to information shared by the rights group with the Egyptian government, the hostages are being held inside a house located near a government building, surrounded by a fruit orchard, next to a large mosque and a church that has been turned into a school.
“But in spite of this detailed description, the authorities have not lifted a finger to free them,” said Pegoraro.
Earlier this week, according to Pegoraro, two of the captives were shot to death in front of the other hostages. The traffickers had apparently accused the two men--both protestant deacons--of having notified international institutions and the media about their plight.
The humanitarian situation faced by the migrants continues to deteriorate, meanwhile, with women and children reportedly being raped. They are also reportedly being denied food and water, and are thus forced to drink their own urine to survive.
“Many of them are thinking of taking their own lives to escape a slow death through severe hardship, and the episodes of rape, torture and beatings,” said Pegoraro.
Al-Masry Al-Youm could not, however, independently verify the reports.
Last week, United Nations refugee agency UNHCR urged the Egyptian government to intervene to secure the release of the hostages, whose captors have reportedly demanded ransom payments of US$8000 per person.
Among the thousands of people that attempt to cross the border each year from Egypt to Israel, most come from nearby sub-Saharan states such as Eritrea and Sudan.
According to smugglers previously contacted by Al-Masry Al-Youm, human trafficking of African migrants to Israel through Sinai is a not uncommon practice among Bedouin tribesmen. They typically reach their prospective patrons through agents in Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, who convince would-be migrants that, upon arrival in Sinai, they will be hired for lucrative salaries.
Once in Sinai, they are often held hostage until they can secure the requested ransom, after which they are smuggled into next-door Israel.
In a related development, the European Parliament (EP) is expected to soon issue a joint resolution "urging the Egyptian authorities to take all necessary measures to secure the release of Eritreans held hostage," according to the EP website.
The draft resolution notes that “Egypt…as well as all countries, has a duty urgently to bring its treatment of refugees into line with international norms so that every refugee is afforded full protection and assistance."
In the draft resolution, currently being debated, MPs go on to admit that certain "policies and measures adopted by some European countries towards migrants have contributed to an increased influx of migrants to Egypt and other countries in the region."
(Source: ALMASRY ALYOUM)
Comments
1. They both have "shoot to kill policy" in their borders.
2. They lie and their ideology is packed with deception and lies.
The middle East will never have peace as long as the Arabs continue to contradict themselves in deeds. They always say something but tend to do the opposite.
Thanks to information glut in the world people are not going to be deceived anymore.
unbelievable, is this from wikileaks?
to keep Issayas in power and let eritrea and its people die a slow but sure death...all is our fault. We have a choice..to say give me freedom or death. It seems we are asking Issayas only the death....
Yes.. our young are leaving the country in thousands, and they are facing all kinds of bad things in thier way to the destination they think could be better off. But we as popel have also choice...to face off our home grown Enemey!!!
My fellow eritreans... our soultion is in our own hands.....TOGG:::TOGGG......BUMMMMMMM::::....then you will see issayas and his chifra peeing in thier pants....
otherwise....leaving the country.... and dying in the process of trying to reach somewhere..is not a solution ..for whom ...this will make PFDJ only stronger and stronger...
Danyom
What most annoys me is when some of us want to be Arabs out of blue , while they mistreat you like insects . That is a sin.
You would love speak Arabic , ohhh what an ignorance. !!!
There is no any Eritrean force that can remove the hgdef regime in Asmara. Hgdef has all the forms and characters of Sadam like security apparatus. Whether you like it or not, the only force that can remove Issaias Afaf out of power is the Ethiopian armed forces under Meles Zenawi.
This will be good for the people of Eritrea and it will be good for Ethiopia. The issue of fighting "peacefully" against hgdef was dead in 2001 when the G-15 demanded political reforms peacefully and legaly.
If we ask the regime and its supporters how do you think about Eritreans facing problems they will reply let them torture and kill them. Eritreans are standing on the side of their brothers and sisters, how do we want others to stand by their side specially dictatorial regimes?
please every body do something abou those who are suffering under bedewin rashayda.
Why is that other Arab governments and Muslim religious leaders all over the world so silent, and they are not condemning Egypt for its inhuman actions?
At least half of the followers of Islam are black Africans. It is so disappointing to see that they are so unmoved when their brothers and sisters are murdered, raped and humiliated. Is it due to religious allegiance?
Where is the legitimacy of any government that does not keep international laws? What is the use of any religion, when it is devoid of humanity?
A living religion has human beings at the center of its philosophy, just below the throne of the Almighty God. A religion that mistreats people of other religions, is in essence a religion against the true God (the true Allah). In addition, a regime that does not respect international laws is nothing but an illegitimate government.
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