EveryOne asks Egypt to send a Task Force to liberate the Eritrean Refugees

Milan, December 24, 2010. Based on the desperate humanitarian situation of the Eritrean refugees being held prisoner by traffickers in northern Sinai, and the testimony of Eritrean migrants who in recent months have reached Israel, we are asking the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and the Interior Minister, Habib Ibrahim El Adly, to send an urgent military task force to Rafah in Egypt to free the immigrants, and arrest their captors.

EveryOne Group has provided the highest Egyptian authorities with the phone numbers and other details about some of the Bedouin traffickers and, once again, all the information for identifying the fruit orchard in Rafah where the three metal shipping containers that serve as a prison for the refugees are located.

In the call for urgent action, the human rights activists from EveryOne have also provided some important guidelines about the Eritreans' situation and the possible steps the traffickers will take next. First of all, we can now exclude the cooperation of the police force in northern Sinai, who - as confirmed by reliable witnesses - are in deep and corrupt collusion with the criminal organizations.

Based on the testimonies of refugees who succeeded in reaching Israel, we can now assume that after payment of the ransom (which continues daily via Western Union) the group of Eritreans will be led on foot towards the border with Israel. They will walk for hours, choosing routes that have proved successful in the past by traffickers. Bedouin guards will travel in front and at the back of the human cargo. They will then use the vulnerable areas along the border, where there are no barriers, to allow the migrants to cross over to the Jewish state.

Those who are unable to pay the ransom come to a tragic end. We must remember that Egypt, despite the efforts of institutions to combat this inhumane trafficking, is still the third largest country in the world for trafficking in human kidneys, thanks to the coverage of the local Mafia and links with organized crime in other countries. In Cairo and other Egyptian cities there are many illegal clinics equipped to supply this market. Young women, in addition to this danger, may also end up in the prostitution racket, becoming slaves. There is no escape from that market. For very young children it is very likely that they will fall victim to the paedophilia market or illegal work.

In our appeal to Egyptian institutions we emphasise the gravity of the migrants' situation, and remember that eight of them have already been killed, four were taken to a clinic and 100 of the 250 migrants originally held in the orchard of Rafah, have been moved to an undisclosed location by the marauders. All factors that make urgent action by the government a necessity.

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