Rome / Arish, November 26th, 2011.
EveryOne Group has received dozens of phone calls and emails over the last few days from relatives of the last prisoners in Northern Sinai.
Once again, we have reported the presence of chained-up refugees to the CNN's Freedom Project. Local sources have confirmed that the police of the North Sinai Governorate, together with the Bedouin security force, are carrying out searches in the detention camps and identifying the traffickers, the latest in Taba, after our report. The notorious robber, Abu Musa, is still at large and is holding a group of about 40 young Eritreans prisoner, but we believe that if the police operations continue, his reign of terror will also come to an end. Our partner, Hamdy Al-Azazy, the president of the New Generation Foundation for Human Rights in Arish (North Sinai) is currently in Cairo, after receiving serious threats from the traffickers.
For our part, after reporting his condition to FrontLine (an international organization that defends activists throughout the world) and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, we are in constant contact with Hamdy, offering what support we can. Hamdy is a candidate for the Makwan Prize, a symbolic recognition that EveryOne Group awards each year to a human rights defender. New Generation Foundation for Human Rights has confirmed that the Bedouin special force (which acts together with the Egyptian police and intelligence services) is continuing its security operations against the smugglers in an attempt to stop the trafficking of migrants. "Previously there were 30 leaders of this criminal trade," says Hamdy, "but currently only 6 remain, and they have pledged to stop the slave trade by January 1, 2012. However, we must continue our humanitarian campaign to ensure that the criminals do not feel safe to resume their terrible trafficking. If we, EveryOne Group, along with the other NGOs continue to work hard, this tragic phenomenon will stop completely."
The humanitarian results achieved so far and the prospects that lead us to believe that the Sinai traffickers can no longer operate with impunity, should not make us forget that the smugglers are still holding several groups of sub-Saharan refugees prisoner. EveryOne is in contact with a group of 37 young prisoners in the hands of Abu Musa, and with another group of 79 refugees, mostly Eritreans, who have been the hands of traffickers for over three months. The smugglers torture, beat and humiliate the boys daily, and submit the girls to rape and ill-treatment. Those who have paid at least $10 000 of the 25,000 ransom (33,000 until a few days ago) are better fed and treated less ruthlessly. Those who do not have relatives able to pay the ransom, however, suffer all kinds of abuse. The smugglers threaten them with a tragic end on the human kidneys black market. We are implementing humanitarian actions to support the authorities in an attempt to put an end to the ordeal of these young refugees.
In the picture, Hamdy in Arish with a refugee from Eritrea who was freed by the traffickers, but shot in the stomach by the Egyptian border police. The young woman later died.
