In December 2010, almost a year ago, Pope Benedict XVI appealed for an end to the
suffering of Eritreans and Ethiopians held hostage by people smugglers in the Sinai
desert. One year on, 500 people are still waiting for freedom. In the last month
alone 4 people have been tortured to death, 41 people are at risk of dying from hunger
and abuse, including 7 women, one of whom is pregnant.
“We don’t have
exact figures, but we estimate that there are upwards of 500 people still in the hands
of traffickers in the Sinai desert, among them women and minors”, says Fr. Mussie
Zerai Yosief, president of the Habeshia Agency, which closely follows the plight of
refugees and asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa.
The prisoners relayed
their dramatic fate by phone, describing continuing harassment, torture and sexual
abuse, in a desperate plea for money to buy their freedom. “What happens is that these
people pay huge sums of money to traffickers in the hopes of crossing to Europe through
Israel. The traffickers – many of them based in Libya, Egypt and Sudan - then bring
them to the Sinai desert where they imprison them demanding further payment of huge
sums – the latest demand was for over 40 thousand dollars for one person”, adds the
Eritrean priest.
Fr. Mussie continues: “The inertia of the States is a godsend
for criminals who get rich, a millionaire business around this trafficking is forcing
hundreds of families into debt for amounts that they will pay for decades, in order
to save the lives of their son, daughter or husband. Many sell everything, or end
up in the hands of usurers”.
There are international agreements to combat
trafficking in human beings. The tools are not missing, but the political will of
States is.
Fr. Mussie also points to the deployment of forces against piracy
at sea, such as the recent raid of the British Navy that freed the hostages of the
Monte Cristo ship: “Why can’t we have an equally resolute commitment to obtain the
release of the more than 500 refugees hostage in the Sinai. We appeal to all humanitarian
organizations, to all international institutions, to make every effort to suppress
this trafficking. Hundreds of lives are in constant danger here”. Listen to
Emer McCarthy’s full interview with Fr. Mussie :
(Photo/AP
: Africans wait for free medical treatment at the Physicians for Human Rights clinic
in Jaffa, Israel. An Israeli rights group says dozens of African women have been raped
by smugglers while trying to reach Israel over the past year. Thousands of Africans
cross through the Sinai each year in hopes of winning asylum in Israel).