The inertia of Egypt; the complicity between the authorities and traffickers that our group and NGOs in Israel and Egypt have brought to people's attention; the hesitation and slowness of the United Nations; the fact that the migrants (including women and children) are the victims of murder, torture, rape, human trafficking, kidney trafficking, slavery; and the influence of organized crime and international terrorism in the Sinai. These are facts that concern the civilized world. The situation of the 250 prisoners – most of them Christian – reminds us of the famous Evian Conference in July 1938, a conference called to "save the Jews", but one that produced no results. The Jews were left to fend for themselves. We really hope this time something concrete will be done. It is obvious that the tragedy in the Sinai poses similar problems faced by the delegates during the Evian Conference. During that conference, too, delegates manifested sympathy for the Jews hit by the racial laws and condemned their persecutors. The countries recognized the importance of taking in refugees, but expressed serious doubts about the possibility of resettlement. The governments claimed to have already reached saturation point where the taking in of refugees was concerned. The only exception was the Dominican Republic. Today, thanks to pressure from NGOs and human rights defenders, Rui Tavares, Rapporteur on the resettlement of Refugees in the EU, admitted that there is no other solution than humanitarian protection. Next month a group of NGOs  (including EveryOne), will participate in the drafting of a programme for the resettlement of African refugees in EU Member States. We must, of course, keep a close eye on the situation of the African migrants after their release.

Meanwhile, we have had our first concrete results. Yesterday, the Egyptian government finally issued a circular stating it is forbidden for border guards to shoot "illegal immigrants", except for serious reasons of self-defence. In recent years many Ethiopians, Eritreans and Sudanese have been killed by the authorities near the border between Egypt and Israel. Also, the traffickers are starting to release groups of refugees, a sign, in our opinion, that their humanitarian tragedy may soon be coming to an end.