Egypt, Sudan to stop kidnapping of asylum-seekers

Amnesty International urges Egypt, Sudan to stop kidnapping of asylum-seekers - Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Egypt and Sudan to stop asylum-seekers and refugees being kidnapped from camps in Sudan, forcibly transported to Egypt, and being severely abused in the Sinai desert.

The global rights body said in a briefing note that for over two years, refugees and asylum-seekers have been kidnapped from in and around the Shagarab refugee camps in eastern Sudan, near the Eritrean border.

It said the vast majority of victims are Eritrean. They are then trafficked to Egypt’s Sinai desert, where they are held captive by Bedouin criminal gangs while ransom payments are demanded from their families.

Amnesty International said it had received repeated reports of brutal violence used against captives in Sinai, including rape and sexual abuse, beatings, burning and other violent and cruel treatment.

The captors reportedly telephone their victims’ relatives while inflicting violence in order to extort money, often demanding ransoms of up to US$30-40,000.

According to the rights body, some refugees and asylum-seekers are murdered when their families are unable to pay the ransom, while others die from injuries or because of the extremely harsh conditions of captivity. One teenage boy held for eight months in Sinai witnessed seven deaths among the other captives during that time.

The organization called on the Egyptian security forces to investigate urgently reports that refugees and asylum-seekers are being held captive in compounds in northeast Sinai.

“The Egyptian authorities have a duty to protect any individual on their soil, and must urgently take steps to free all people held captive and subjected to appalling abuses in Sinai, and provide them with immediate medical attention and access to asylum procedures and support,” said Claire Beston, Amnesty International’s Eritrea researcher.

Amnesty International urges the governments of Egypt and Sudan to make significant efforts to bring anyone involved in the crimes of kidnapping and human trafficking to justice.

It also calls on the countries along the trafficking route – running from Eritrea through Ethiopia and Sudan into Egypt - to work together to bring an end to the kidnapping, trafficking and horrific abuses, and to increase engagement with international agencies’ initiatives to tackle these crimes.

Pana 03/04/2013