Sinai hostages: a 21st century tragedy

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).