More Refugees Moved to Ethiopia. A new conference of Bedouins and activists in North Sinai. The objective was to stop the detention, torture, extortion and abuse of refugees held hostage in the Sinai.

More Refugees Moved to Ethiopia. A new conference of Bedouins and activists in North Sinai. The objective was to stop the detention, torture, extortion and abuse of refugees held hostage in the Sinai.

Arish (North Sinai, Egypt), February 15, 2012. A second conference of Bedouins and human rights activists was held in North Sinai on February 1st., the first being held September 16th, 2011. The objective was to strengthen resolve to stop the detention, torture, extortion and abuse of refugees held hostage in the Sinai by renegade Bedouins. A main organizer of the conference was Mr. Hamdy Al-Azazy of the New Generation Foundation for Human Rights (ngf-humanrights.org), who was a main speaker at the event. Over 100 attended, including a number of important Sheiks.

As progress continues in getting hostages released from offending camps with many of the refugees subsequently jailed by Egyptian security police, and with other refugees also jailed, more are being sent from the jails to safety in Ethiopia. Recent inmates from Romana Prison have arrived in Ethiopia: 42 arrived safely in Addis Ababa on February 10th, and another 27 (11 women and 16 men) on February 13th. The first group consisted of 29 men, 11 women and 2 3-year olds. An America Team representative was there to greet them. This brings the total number of Eritrean refugees received by Ethiopia from Egyptian jails to over 2,100 since 2008.

Pictures: the conference held in the Sinai desert