UK MUST INSIST REFUGEES ARE PROTECTED AS IT ASSISTS EGYPT QUELL SINAI MILITANTS

UK MUST INSIST REFUGEES ARE PROTECTED AS IT ASSISTS EGYPT QUELL SINAI MILITANTS

8 October 2012

The UK government must ensure that the ongoing kidnapping, torture and killing of refugees in Sinai is ended once and for all as it supports Egyptian efforts to stabilise the peninsula.

At any given time, hundreds of refugees and asylum-seekers are held for ransom and tortured by local Bedouin tribes in Sinai as they try to reach the border with Israel. When refugees attempt to cross the border, the Egyptian forces use excessive force and shoot-to-kill policies against them.

UK’s collaboration with Egypt comes in response to increased militant activity in Sinai. Efforts will focus on the same Bedouin tribes, which are key players in smuggling arms into the peninsula. This is a rare window of opportunity to protect refugees in the area. It must not be missed.

The refugees, mainly from Eritrea, are held captive in Sinai until they pay large ransoms - as much as $40,000 - for their release. It can take months for captives to raise such sums. Many are held for prolonged periods, often more than half a year.

The captors systematically rape women and sometimes men. They beat their hostages with ironclad sticks, hang them in excruciating positions for days at a time, pour urine and sand on them, or murder them in front of one another. Hostages are also deprived of food and water.

“I was chained to another 24 people by my legs and arms”, one Eritrean woman told an Israeli NGO. ““Each night they would take some of the women out and rape us. I was raped by seven men. I saw three women and three men die from the electric shocks and lack of water, and one other man was burned alive because he could not pay."

“Because we all did not pay fast enough, they would melt plastic on the men and beat us women with sticks.  We were around 100 people in this camp, including 11 women and 2 children."  

"Eventually, the Eritrean community paid my ransom.  I was taken to the border, but I left 41 people behind that could not pay. The Egyptian soldiers shot at us as we tried to cross, but luckily none of us were hit.”

Those who are unable to pay are taken to illegal clinics where their organs are removed for sale and their bodies are left in the desert or buried in mass graves, according to CNN.

There has been no accountability for the abuse of thousands of refugees in Sinai due to the instability within Egypt since the break of the Arab Spring and lack of political will by the Egyptian government and international community.
The UK is now in a position to give long overdue protection to refugees travelling through Sinai. Its collaboration with the Egyptian government must include, as first priority, guarantees and actions to ensure that:

1. All torture camps inside Sinai are completely and permanently closed down
2. Those responsible for trafficking, kidnapping, torture and rape of refugees are held to justice in a court of law
3. The Egyptian border forces immediately end to the use of excessive force and its shoot-to kill policies

For more details contact:

Selam Kidane, Release Eritrea, +44-7931554136, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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