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African Smuggling Gangs Turn Sinai into Torture Land

Ahmed Abu Draa – Egypt 1TUAl-Masry Al-Youm U1T

African migrants trying to escape from the hell of their country on their way to the perceived paradise of Israel often come through the Sinai. Along the way, they are chased by the Egyptian police and their Israeli counterparts, and they put their fates in the hands of some smugglers. The smugglers do not just ask for money to accompany them in Sinai, but also stop to torture the migrants, exploiting their fear and weakness to get additional money. The smugglers use different torture instruments such as cigarettes and iron rods. These practices turn the Sinai into torture land.

Tesafy Mogaby, 33, comes from a village that is 70 kilometers away from the Eritrean capital Asmara. He did not know that he would lose the ability to move his feet as a result of three months of torture by sharp objects and boiling plastic that was poured on him by the smuggling gangs who were supposed to take him to Israel. The torture was to force his family to pay thousands of dollars as a ransom to get him to Israel. Making it to Israel, Tesafy imagined, would compensate for pain of torture, hunger and imprisonment in Sinai.

Tesafy told his story using some Arabic words he learned in the detention camps for illegal immigrants in Sinai, He said, “I left my country to Sudan in a trip lasted for about 3 weeks. We swam until we reached the Egyptian borders. After that, the Eritrean broker sold us to other brokers in a tribe called Rashaida, which exists on the Egyptian-Sudanese borders. And, when we got to the border area in Rafah we found ourselves in the gangs’ hands. They tied us with chains of iron and burnt our bodies with burning plastic hoses until our families transferred large sums of money, which exceeded $25,000.”

He added, “What brought us to this stage is the practices followed by these smugglers of selling us to each other, and we paid bribes to each of them, and so on, until we were about to die of starvation and torture. During the period of torture and extortion,

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we managed to escape from a camp with a group up to 15 illegal migrants, and we helped each other until we got to the house of Sheikh Mohammed Mene’i, who brought a doctor at his expense to see us and provided us with a place to stay so that we can leave the country and return back to Eritrea.”

In Sheikh Mene’i's house we found a large number of illegal migrants who managed to get rid of smugglers and could not find shelter except the home of Sheikh Mene’i. A 20 year old girl was lying beside the sheikh. Her name was Almaz. Her skinny body and appearance pointed to the difficult experience she went through until she reached the sheikh’s home. The girl covered her hair with a piece of cloth as smugglers burnt it to force her family in Eritrea to transfer money to save their daughter and allow her to cross to the Israeli side of the border.

The young woman said, “They poured gasoline on my hair and set it on fire and poured boiling plastic on my back until I was on the verge of death. Also, they practiced another way to force the girls’ families to transfer money, which was rapping them. And, before I managed to escape we fell asleep, and when they tried to wake us up they found one of us dead, and immediately they covered him with a bed sheet and threw him in the car, like garbage, and got rid of him in the desert.”

Amid this torment, “the prisoners” were enjoying the special privilege of making international phone calls with unlimited durations as long as they would guarantee bringing money to the smugglers. Almaz said, “They didn’t prevent any of us from contacting anyone, whether he was a relative or a friend. For me, I contacted my father’s friends in Eritrea, who were able to provide $17,000 to save me by selling the family home. Moreover, my father borrowed money from his friends and relatives, but the smugglers asked for more money. And, after the torture I described to my father over the phone, he managed to send more $7,000. The total now is $24,000, but they did not have mercy and carried on torturing me until I escaped and found the house of Sheikh.”

The home of Sheikh Mohammed Mene’i has become something like a shelter for victims of torture who wanted to illegally immigrate to Israel and who fled from the camps where they were tortured by gangs of human traffickers. One of the victims called Samsom, a 30 year old Eritrean, said, “They use to torture me using many techniques. They made holes into my feet using hot iron skewers and practiced types of psychological torture to force the well off among us to pay. For example, they put one of us in a blanket and set it on fire to force others transfer large amounts of money. Because of this brutal torture 7 out of 60 of us died.”

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A 27-year-old man named Mathy sat next to Samsom. He said, “We have crossed thousands of kilometers searching for a good life in Israel to take care of our families, and, in order to reach that target, we suffered a lot through our trip. They tied our legs with chains of iron so we could not run away. When we got to the border area with Israel, they imprisoned us in a warehouse and subjected us to all kinds of physical and psychological torture. They use to give us just one meal per day, which was a loaf of bread and a piece of cheese for each of us.”

It seems that they have optimistic ideas about the future to bear this torment. Samsom said, “I endured this experience after I knew the story of my Eritrean colleague, Itai Mutair, who managed to enter Israel in 2011 and was able to find satisfying work for him and his family in Eritrea. And, despite the crackdown by the Israeli government on illegal African immigrants that coincided with the racist demonstrations that called for the expulsion of Africans from Israel, I still hold on to hope in finding jobs that will compensate me for all money I paid.”

In addition to the exploited migrants, the story has another character who is a member of a gang trafficking in Africans. He agreed to testify on two conditions: First, to be brief without going into too many details about the trafficking routes across the borders. His reasoning was that he “lives on this work.” The second condition was to refer to him by the nickname “Abu Faris”.

Abu Faris said: “Torture is rare. It is not practiced by all the gangs that smuggle Africans to Israel, and most gangs smuggle Africans once they get to the border region. The trip takes about 15 days if nothing disturbs its march. The number of gangs working in the field of smuggling is about 50, but this number is not official. The numbers of Africans that reach each gang varies. As for me, I receive about 100 migrants per week.”

As for smuggling routes, Abu Faris added, “we smuggle immigrants from the Egyptian-Sudanese borders to the Peace Bridge and Shahid Ahmed Hamdy tunnel in Suez, paying big bribes along the way. Then, we put them in a warehouse offering them food in exchange for additional funds we already paid as bribes in order to facilitate their access to the border point. I do not deny that some of these smugglers torture African immigrants in order to obtain additional funds.”

Amid these tragic details, light appears at the end of the tunnel in the form of Sheikh Mohammed Mene’i. He is not an old man, but in his thirties. He made his house as a shelter for migrants who escaped from the hell of smuggling gangs. He gives them

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medical care, drink and food without any charge, and he hands them over to the UNHCR in preparation for deporting them back to their countries.

Describing what happens to the African migrants from a viewpoint that opposes smuggling as a whole, he said, “I cannot describe ugliness and processes of torture against illegal African immigrants. No one can justify that. In the last few months we were able to save and repatriate them through UNHCR of the United Nations. Yet, I hope the state finds a way to prevent such activities from their source, and we, from our side, will continue fighting this phenomenon although we are sure that we cannot stop them without the official cooperation of the state.”

Mene’i shows his surprise at the lack of interest and oversight by authorities saying, “We must unite to prevent migrants from entering Sinai. Showing discomfort and anxiety at the phenomenon is not enough. The state has to take action in response to this disaster and save its reputation.”

Ali Mene’i, the youngest brother of Sheikh Mohammed, tried to find a practical solution to the problem. He said: “We are going to hold several meetings with community leaders from northern Sinai to prevent this phenomenon, which has spread dramatically and tarnished the image of the Bedouins in general and the image of the entire Sinai in particular. We will go on fighting against this crime.”

Amid the civilian efforts that Sheikh Mene’i talked about and the accusations made by his brother that the state doesn’t make the necessary effort to stop this phenomenon, Abdul Wahab Mabrouk, the Governor of North Sinai explains that mopping-up operations are carried out at all entrances of North Sinai Governorate to prevent acts of infiltration. Despite these measures, large numbers of migrrants arrive at the borders. Most of them are seized at the checkpoints or while they are crossing. The Police deter them by shooting. As a result, some of the migrants are injured. After they are arrested, their embassies are notified in order to deport them to their countries.

Concerning Africans who are killed while trying to cross the border, Mabrouk said, “They are shot by the police or smuggling gangs that throw their bodies in the desert, and we find them and give them to the embassies or to a team of prosecutors. The unidentified bodies are buried in the cities of El Arish, Rafah or Sheikh Zuwaid.”

Mabrouk added, “We deal with official organizations such as embassies of their countries, human rights organizations and the Foreign Ministry.” At the same time, he denied the rumors about the presence of gangs trafficking in the organs of migrants after killing them. “Such operations can’t exist in the desert as they need equipped rooms and complex medical tests,” he said.

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In contrast, the top security official in North Sinai, General Saleh El Masry, refused to talk about the case, or even deny it. But, a security source in the district, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed that the security services know exactly the names and places of smugglers. However, they do not pay attention to them as they are satisfied with only focusing on the priority of restoring safety to Sinai’s streets and are not interested in solving the problem of illegal African migrants.

Following the release of the a 2010 U.S. State Department report on human trafficking that cited Egypt as a transit point for women and children trafficked into forced labor and sexual servitude, the Egyptian legislature passed a law, named 64/2010, that criminalized human trafficking. The second article of the law states, anyone “shall be guilty of the crime of trafficking in human beings who has to deal in any way in the natural person, including selling or offering for sale, purchase or promising them, use, transport, delivery, shelter, reception or receipt both inside the country or across national borders. - If this is done by the use of force or violence or the threat of them or by abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, position of vulnerability or need, the promise of giving or receiving of payments or benefits in exchange for the consent of a person on another person trafficking has control it - and all of that - if the dealing was for exploitation including exploitation in prostitution or any other forms of sexual exploitation, child pornography, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, begging, removal of organs or tissues, or part of it.”

The law also details the punishment for anyone found guilty of this charge, saying, “Any person who commits the crime of trafficking in human beings is to be sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine not less than one 100,000 pounds and not exceeding 500,000 pounds in cases where the offender has established or managed organized criminal groups for purposes of trafficking or was one of its members if the act was committed by death threats, serious harm, physical or psychological torture or if the act was committed by a person carrying a weapon.”

Human Rights Watch prepared a detailed report on operations focusing on the use of lethal force against illegal migrants by security forces on Egyptian-Israeli border. The report concluded that the number of illegal migrants who crossed into Israel was up to 100 per day, and the total of migrants who crossed between 2006 and 2008 reached 13,000 individuals.

The report made a number of recommendations to the Egyptian and Israeli governments in addition to the UNHCR. Among the most prominent recommendations to Egypt was, “Making sure that the security forces won’t use lethal force against migrants except in the case of warding off any threat to life, investigate

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the shooting that caused the death of 33 Sudanese and other African immigrants and stop trying them militarily.” The report recommended that the Israeli government should “stop (coordinated Return) to Egypt of persons who crossed the borders from the Sinai until designing a system in Tel Aviv to guarantee that the border-crossers would be able to apply for asylum.” Additionally, the UNHCR recommended the High Commissioner for Refugees of the United Nations in Egypt put an end to freezing requests by people from Darfur at the level of asylum-seekers and allow full consideration in their applications to seek asylum.

As for the file of the illegal African migrants, Heba Mreif, the individual responsible of the Egyptian file in Human Rights Watch, said, “There are two types of violations regarding the rights of immigrants. First, direct violations by the security forces by shooting and killing and killing immigrants by on the borders, and the second type is arrests performed by these forces against migrant and not allowing the UNHCR to visit the detainees in police stations, in addition to torture at the hands of gangs trafficking in human beings in order to get more funds, which requires government intervention to protect victims.”

Mreif adds, “The Egyptian-Israeli border is the worst border in the world, where the police kill any immigrant crossing the border rather than arresting him and applying the law to his case. In comparison with the US-Mexican border, which extends for hundreds of kilometers, where one illegal immigrant is killed per year, Egypt witnesses the killing of 50 migrants per year in addition to hundreds of others who are injured. Moreover, Egyptian authorities do not grant any requests to visit the detained immigrants, whether to members of the UNHCR or any other human rights organizations that work in the field of migrants rights.

As for detention centers in Sinai, Mreif says, “What is happening in Sinai is really weird as police stations detain African immigrants for the whole year. One of the stations saw the death of a child due to lack of health care, and in 2007 the UNHCR sent letters to the Interior Ministry to visit the detainees, but, so far, has not received a response.”