Refugees in the Sinai. Another group has been located at El Gorah

Rome, January 19th, 2011. Trafficking in human beings in the northern Sinai is a plague that Egypt is preparing to face in 2011 with a special anti-terrorism unit.

"The Egyptian government is setting up a special body," say Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro and Dario Picciau, co-presidents of EveryOne Group, "whose goal is to stamp out trafficking in human beings and weapons. The Special Corp uses tanks, helicopters and heavy artillery: a sign that the Egyptian government has reached an agreement with Israel for a derogation from the Camp David accords of 1978, which required the Egyptian security forces on the border to use only light weapons".

Meanwhile, the Eritrean priest, Mussiè Zerai, had been in contact with a second group of migrant prisoners in the Sinai. "Don Zerai promptly launched the alarm," continue EveryOne, "and our group has carried out investigations in an attempt to identify the locations where the migrants are being held. According to the information in our possession, when the group of migrants left Sudan and crossed into Egypt, there were 60 African refugees. Traffickers of the Rashaida tribe have asked each of them to pay $3000. In Sinai, however, the group has been divided into two. The one we are in contact with consists of 38 refugees, including 8 women. They are being held in a prison camp, chained hand and foot in metal shipping containers.

"The young prisoner in contact with Zerai has provided valuable information for the investigations of the human rights defenders. "The group is located near the border with Israel, close to an airport used by a multinational force," say EveryOne Group. "We have enough information to locate the place of detention: El Gorah, north-east of Sinai, where there is an airbase used by the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO). There are some properties near the airport of El Gorah that belong to Bedouins and which have already been singled out during investigations into human trafficking. El Gorah is an organized crime stronghold that has its centre in the nearby Al Arish, the capital of the Northern Sinai Governorate, which is being controlled by Palestinians bosses born in Egypt who work alongside members of the Al Tarabin tribe. Recent police operations have proved their links to Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Fatah.

Profits from trafficking are used to fund terrorism and this gang - whose members call themselves 'Arabs' - is well-known for its violent responses to the local law enforcement, and has led to many victims among police officers. These 'Arabs' corrupt security forces and carry out their trade virtually undisturbed. Our group has received reports of other groups of migrants being detained at El Gorah in large tents or confined in underground metal shipping containers, hidden in the Bedouin fruit orchards of El Gorah. A number of Ethiopians and Eritreans work for the "Arabs", and they communicate with the refugees in their own language. The name of the Eritrean guardian assigned to the new group of refugees is Araya Tesfamicael.

Based on this information, Agenzia Habeshia and EveryOne Group have asked for urgent action to be taken by the Egyptian government to free the migrants and control the tents and fruit orchards where we suspect other migrants are being held. The humanitarian organizations are asking the nations of the MFO (as well as Egypt, Israel and the United States), the UN and the EU institutions, to do everything in their power and adopt all diplomatic means to convince the Egyptian authorities to take immediate action.

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