Report by EveryOne Group on the illegal detention in Rafah of over 250 Eritreans

A brief report by EveryOne Group on the illegal detention in Rafah (North Sinai, Egypt) of over 250 migrant Eritreans, Sudanese, Somalis and Ethiopians by traffickers linked to Hamas.

December 17, 2010. THE FAILURE OF THE EGYPTIAN POLICE TO INTERVENE. "The plight of the Eritrean, Somali, Sudanese and Ethiopian refugees being held by traffickers in northern Sinai in the town of Rafah, is now desperate, yet the Egyptian authorities have done nothing to save them from episodes of rape, violence, torture, blackmail and death. It is not the first time, unfortunately, that the Egyptian police (while being aware of groups of African migrants) has chosen not to intervene," say Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau, co-presidents of EveryOne. "In August, for example, the authorities in Rafah were informed of the presence of a group of 300 Eritreans chained up and subjected to extortion in the village of al-Mahdeyya, south of the city. Rather than release them, the Egyptian police focused on a group of Eritreans who had managed to escape from the shipping containers, killing two and arresting 17. No action was taken against the traffickers. "

THE MISSION TO RAFAH. "For our part," continue the activists of EveryOne, "we offered to undertake a mission to Rafah, to lead the representatives of the Ministry of Interior and the police to the trafficker's hideout, and the fruit orchard where the Eritreans are being held. Through an Embassy of Egypt, we were told that the Egyptian Government does not acknowledge the existence of the hostages, and has therefore not offered the slightest support for the mission. We were also advised not to travel to Rafah for security reasons. Subsequently, however, as we were preparing to leave, we lost all telephone contact with the key witness in this case of kidnapping and extortion, an Eritrean citizen who lives in Rafah and whose personal details were in the possession of the Egyptian authorities and the UN. Over the last few days the prisoners - after the killings, cases of rapes, torture with hot irons, and extortion - have been expressing a desire to commit suicide. "

PROFILE OF THE HEAD OF THE TRAFFICKERS. His name is Abu Khaled, a Palestinian Bedouin belonging to the Rashaida tribe. He is slim built and wears a beard. He uses a pick-up to move about, he is the father of seven children and lives in the town of Rafah on the border between Egypt and Palestine, in the Gaza Strip. Before becoming a trafficker he was a kindergarten teacher. He was interviewed by The Telegraph and The National newspaper of Abu Dhabi, in which he shamelessly described his misdeeds and his relations with Hamas. He is in business with the arms dealer Abu Ahmed, who is also from Rafah, and he has 20 men working for him who organize the trafficking of refugees under one of the tunnels that branch off along the "Philadelphia corridor", that is, the strip of land that separates Egypt from Palestine: they do the dirty work, while there are other men, the so-called "runners", who deliver quickly, carrying on their backs through the underground tunnels the possessions of migrants travelling from Rafah to Gaza. He and Abu Ahmed are wanted for smuggling, even if "the Rafat police authorities are corrupt," as confirmed by another trafficker in a recent interview (again to The Telegraph) and "traffickers come in handy for Egypt, because if the tunnels that lead from Rafah to Palestine are closed, the Sinai will be invaded by people who want to cross the border, and then continue on to Israel."

This is the head of the traffickers, who for over a month have been holding the group hostage and demanding a ransom of $ 8,000 each (In addition to the $ 2000 already paid) from their families back in their homelands to free them and allow them to use the tunnel (7 mts below ground) which will bring them close to Gaza, near the Rafah Palestinian refugee camp. From here they can cross over into Israel. His men have already killed eight migrants, and four have literally disappeared after being taken by the group "so their kidneys can be removed in exchange for the non-payment of their ransom."

THE PLACE OF DETENTION. The refugees are chained hand and foot in shipping containers in a fruit orchard (a“greenhouse”) on the outskirts of Rafah. They are next to a large mosque and a former church that has been converted into a school, and close to a building belonging to the Egyptian government, so close, in fact, that the refugees can see it.

FATAWI MAHARI, THE ETHIOPIAN WHO HELPS ABU KHALED COLLECT THE RANSOM MONEY.

Abu Khaled is helped by an Ethiopian man who tells the refugees to call him by his nickname, Wedi Koneriel, but whose real name has been revealed by the refugees themselves as Mahari: the same Fatawa Mahari. He is the Ethiopian who came under investigation in September 2009 by Israeli intelligence on charges of arranging money transfers for trafficking in human beings in Egypt; for extorting money from relatives of Africans kidnapped by Bedouins in northern Sinai; and then pouring it into the pockets of traffickers in order to allow the hostage migrants' passage through the tunnels that link Egypt to the Gaza Strip. Mahari, who was initially arrested by the police authorities in Jerusalem, was later released and is still on the loose. He may have moved to Rafah, also thanks to his links with Hamas.

THE MIND OF HAMAS AND THE SUPERVISION OF AL-QAEDA. The brutal acts of extortion that have continued for months, with episodes of murder, torture, rape and constant threats, and the trafficking that takes place in the tunnels on the border between Egypt and Palestine, are in fact controlled by Hamas, as confirmed by Abu Ahmed to the Telegraph, explaining that "until Egypt strikes an agreement with Hamas, these activities will continue.” That Abu Khaled was in close agreement with the movement of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah before, and Hamas now, is also confirmed by the U.S. broadcaster NPR, National Public Radio.

An Israeli intelligence official also confirmed that Egyptian intelligence has a list with the names of all those involved in the trafficking in the Sinai Desert, particularly on the border between Egypt and Palestine. It is also suspected that the profits from human trafficking in the Sinai may even go to fund the terrorist activities of Al-Qaeda, whose presence in the Sinai and whose ties to Hamas are confirmed by the National Security Council of Israel.

Given that the opening to one of the tunnels run by the traffickers is probably situated close to the "greenhouse", the fruit orchard where the 150 migrants are being held, we can assume that the other 100 refugees - of whom we have recently lost all trace - have been transferred to Palestinian territory, where the traffickers' tunnels emerge and the illegal refugee/concentration camps are located.

OUR APPEALS. EveryOne Group has appealed to the United Nations to put urgent pressure on the Egyptian Government to secure the release of the Eritrean refugees. The Group has also called for action to be taken by the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt to mobilize the security services and free the victims of trafficking. It has called on him to initiate an effective fight against the trafficking in human beings and to give the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) the chance to assess the persons entitled to asylum and humanitarian protection. EveryOne has asked the Palestinian National Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas to collaborate in the liberation of the refugees, and to watch over the tunnels and the refugee camps run by Hamas. The Group has asked it to encourage international cooperation to fight human trafficking between Egypt and the Palestinian territories, and prosecute the traffickers (despite people like Abu Khaled enjoying positions of prestige in the Palestinian territories). President Mahmoud Abbas knows the smuggler Abu Khaled very well, as confirmed by local sources. Finally, EveryOne has contacted several members of the European Parliament and the democratic governments of the Union, urging them to do everything in their power to ensure the authorities of Egypt and Palestine take steps to free the refugees and prosecute the traffickers and murderers. It asks them to implement policies for the future that are effective against human trafficking, kidnapping, torture, murder, and the tragic reality of the black market in human organs. To prevent the recurrence of these tragedies of unprecedented gravity, however, it has become a priority to put an end to the “pushing back” of migrant asylum seekers; to condemn the agreements between governments that are aimed at the persecution of refugees, and instead to create long-term policies for the reception of refugees and their relocation in the European Union.

In the photographs: Palestinian smugglers at Rafah (Governorate of the Northern Sinai, Egypt)

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