The theft of organs of the African refugees in the Sinai

«Seventh day» Egyptian newspaper reveals Details of the theft of organs of the African infiltrators into Israel via the Sinai. Bedouin gangs hold them in caves in Sinai and bargain on their lives to sell their organs

There is a quote a young Sudanese called «Yasser Ibrahim Haroun» age 22 who came from the Darfur region intending to infiltrate into Israel, his body bears serious burns and he is still being treated at Arish hospital. «Yasser» escaped definite death after being tortured and threatened of the theft of his organs. The investigation revealed a network of gangs smuggling Africans and killing them and removing their organs in order to sell them inside and outside of Egypt. These organs are sold for thousands of Egyptian pounds. The bodies of the victims are dumped in the desert to perish there or left to predators. At times they are found and placed at the mortuary of Al Arish Hospital.

In order to get to the corpses one needs to go down four levels to see inside the refrigerators where the bodies lie. These include five bodies of Africans, of whom three bodies were found several days ago, causing a strong smell of decomposing bodies.

According to the testimony of those who work there who spoke on condition of anonymity, they said that the hospital often receives bodies of Africans beyond the capacity so they had to put more than three bodies in one drawer of a refrigerator. The injuries vary as some are shot by the border police and some bodies are torn and this shows that their parts have been removed. Sometimes the number of bodies that come to reach up to 10 says «A. B» a doctor at the hospital.

Due to the presence of such bodies at the time we entered the mortuary, we were able to take pictures of bodies some without eyes and others carrying deep wounds in the kidney area indicating that organs have been removed.

«Women and men had their bodies torn in the desert of northern Sinai after being injected with anesthesia and had their organs taken in refrigerators that are small and are smuggled across the border. The doctor pointed that most doctors ignore the writing of medical reports to escape responsibility, and write cause of death as «is still under consideration», which is a clear violation of the laws and regulations governing the work of doctors.

The young Sudanese tells his story on how he was smuggled until he reached Sinai.

Rabab Abdul Ghani Salim, human rights activist working voluntarily in the washing and shrouding the bodies of Africans confirmed that 50% of the bodies, which comes there had organs removed «the liver, kidney, cornea, and sometimes the heart». These are placed in mini refrigerators after the extraction of the organs in specially equipped rooms or in vehicles that resemble ambulances and are taken across the border or to some hospitals whose licenses have been withdrawn.

A car accident several days ago in the way of «Mahdia», revealed the persistence of organ trafficking in northern Sinai, although denied by all the security authorities. According to the members of the Sheikh Zuwaid tribe the car, where a doctor named «S.A.», was carrying a small refrigerator containing human organs .

Smuggling of organs or membranes extracted from the body of Africans across the border to Israel is easy as there is a collaboration between Israeli officers with the Sinai Bedouin from the regions of Al Guseima and Wadi Al Jemer .

All these practices occur despite the fact that Article VI of the Human Trafficking Act No. 64 of 2010 punishes anyone who commits the crime of trafficking in human beings to life imprisonment and a fine of not less than one hundred thousand pounds and not exceeding five hundred thousand pounds.

Other surprise lies in the revelations of Sheikh Mohamed Rashid Sheikh of the Altyaha tribe who confirmed that the most famous person who is involved in the trading of the organs and dealing with Israel is a person named (S.N), a fugitive from a life sentence and calls him «Sultan». He is known to have a lot of money and weapons. The Shaikh  adds, that (S.N) hides the Africans in a secret cave around 40km from the city of Nekhl on the road of tunnel «Nubie». It is located around 155 km from El Arish, which is an isolated place where no one lives. The Shiekh says «we sometimes used to see a big white car that looks like an ambulance coming to his house, on one occasion we found a young doctor, around thirty five years old, with him. We thought at the time that he was sick, but we knew later that he was a doctor, and then we were surprised by a large number of Africans with him. In one of the customary sessions he admitted that he traded in slaves only as a means of living on the grounds that he like the other people of the Sinai had no job. But the fear of the people of the village from the possibility of converting it to a mafia network made them attack him two months ago, but he escaped. After that we discovered a mass grave at a distance of 500 meters from his home, with many mutilated bodies and skeletons ».

Another young man from the tribe says that «When we stormed (S.N)’s home around 30 days ago we found paper that show money being transferred to the man from Israel and that they discovered the remains of bodies and nearly 80 people who were still alive, and they then handed them over to the Police.

It was necessary to verify the information given by members of the Altyaha tribe, which led us to visit the region, which (S.N.) used to live in. It was a simple house like other isolated houses in northern Sinai, located in an area completely free of people, consists of 4 rooms, and at a distance of approximately 500 meters, there is a cave and with an area of approximately 1000 meters and on the floor of the cave there are remains of food of food, onions, cans of juice and the remains of skeletons and corpses some hit at the neck and others in a state of decomposition. Sheikh Rashid explained that most of these bodies have organs taken off, even their blood. He says they tried to arrest the criminal, but he escaped with the help of the people of his tribe and up to now they do not know his place.

We talked by telephone with a 23 year old young Eritrean named «Walid Daoud» inside «Romana prison» near Arish who described his trip from Eritrea to Sudan and then to the Sinai, saying that his first contact was one of the international organization in Sudan dealing with the affairs of Darfur, which obtained money from him and his friends ranging from «$1000 - $2000». He pointed out that some of the victims do not contact these organizations and deal with some brokers, who are linked to nomads in northern Sinai. In the city of Kassala he agreed with one of the people to take him to Israel without paying for transport and to pay 10 thousand US dollars when they reach Sinai. The vehicles they used were carrying  15 to 17 people each. If one of us tried to move out of the car he would be shot immediately. We did not know where we were going or where we would arrive. The only thing we knew was that we were going to Sinai. Daoud pointed out that when they were in the custody of the Bedouin the money agreed upon to be paid was doubled. The Bedouins gave us phones and asked us to communicate with our relatives abroad subjecting us to different forms of torture such as beating us with whips and pouring hot water on our bodies. After a long silence Daoud tried to describe the scene of the killing of his friend, Rezene Berhane, in front of his eyes and took his body and threw it in the desert to plant fear on us.

Hamdy Azazi, chair of the new generation of human rights in North Sinai, said that the number of dead Africans increased after the January Uprising due to the increasing rate of insecurity in the area, which is in agreement already with the report issued by the Center for Sudanese Studies.

Azazi confirms, that the gangs of Bedouin receive in return either a shipment of weapons or money, while Israel on the other hand sales such organs three times the price and sell these organs all over the world. Sudanese organizations who work on the issue of Darfur reap money from Africans who want to escape, an amount ranging from «$1000 - $2000», to help them escape from Sudan to Israel to be recruited in the army.

Azazi confirmed that these gangs operate on multiple criminal activities. He says «these gangs do not have a specific activity, they are armed groups that deal with drug trafficking and arms, and sometimes exploit the Africans for the plantation of drugs, let alone the sexual exploitation of women which are subjected to rape and forced pregnancy.

The report issued by the U.S. State Department last year on human trafficking stated that Egypt occupies the third place in the world.

While Dr Imad al-Din al-Shahat, head of the medical forensic branch of Port Said who is responsible for autopsies in northern Sinai, asserts that there are some bodies that are not autopsied for unknown reasons. He says that sometimes we do not see certain bodies and when we ask for the reason we hear decisions were taken to prevent autopsy. We are told some times that the embassy to which the body belongs does not want an autopsy to be carried and requests the immediate dispatch of the bodies. He says that that one of the most wanted organs that can be easily smuggled is the cornea of the eye where it can be preserved in certain refrigerators, and can be used within 24 hours after the day of extraction. It is also easily performed.

The Information which we unveiled through a long journey has many aspects which we will disclose shortly in order to get rid of those criminals.

Translated by Idris Mk

(Source: http://www.youm7.com/News.asp?NewsID=523921&SecID=12&fb_source=message#.Tq8rnE6qnwN.facebook)

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