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Africa/Middle East: Sinai Trafficking
AfricaFocus Bulletin
December 12, 2013 (131212)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"[I]t is estimated that 25,000--30,000 people [mostly Eritreans]
were victims of Sinai trafficking between 2009 and 2013. This
figure includes those that have died, disappeared, and survived and
those currently being held in the Sinai. It is also estimated that
the value of the ransoms paid -- the 'Sinai trafficking industry' --
is, conservatively, USD 600 million over the last five years." -
The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond, December 2013
Deadly risks to migrants and abuses of migrants' rights are found
around the world. Yet while deaths of migrants on the US-Mexican
border and in the Mediterranean sometimes gain news coverage and
have been widely studied, those on other migration pathways are
most often invisible to all but those most directly affected. This
is certainly true of the journeys from the Horn of Africa to Middle
Eastern countries in the arc from Egypt to the Gulf.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from a new report on
one of the most harrowing journeys, of Eritreans who are trafficked
for ransom through the Sinai Desert. The full report, with
devastating personal stories, is available at
http://tinyurl.com/pseamzv
As is often the case, there is far more related material to be
included than can possibly fit in one AfricaFocus Bulletin. Over
the last month, over 100,000 Ethiopian migrants have been expelled
from Saudi Arabia, as part of a government crackdown on foreign
workers. Another AfricaFocus Bulletin released today, not sent out
by email but available on the web at http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/migr1312b.php, contains several
background reports on this escalation of abuses against migrants in
that country, as well as on the legal situation in Gulf states
preventing defense of their rights.
Such denials of migrants' rights, it is important to note, are
symptoms of a system of global apartheid in which rights and
privilege are explicitly linked to country of citizenship and in
which systematic abuses of vulnerable people living outside their
country of citizenship are pervasive. For those calling for the
world today to emulate Nelson Mandela's commitment to fight
injustice, this is among the most critical challenges of our time.
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on migration and migrants'
rights, visit http://www.africafocus.org/migrexp.php
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Nelson Mandela
Adding more words to the torrent of tributes to Madiba seems
superfluous. But those which I have found most worth reading are
those which go beyond tribute to an icon, instead highlighting
points of history sanitized away to suit conventional wisdom or
those calling for action to address today's gross injustices which
match those of apartheid in their consequences if not in their
clear visibility.
The single source I have found most helpful in posting such
alternatives to conventional wisdom is the blog
http://africasacountry.com/ (be sure to look back at posts
beginning December 5), which also includes a superb collection of
"Songs for Mandela" . Space and time allow listing of only a
handful of other commentaries not already featured by Africa is a
Country, which have not received much coverage and which
AfricaFocus readers would likely find of interest:
http://www.unchainafricapress.com/, with personal commentaries from
several younger activists; Zakes Mda, "Neither Sell-out nor Saint"
http://tinyurl.com/matx7xg; Democracy Now, "Nelson Mandela and
Fidel Castro, 1991" http://tinyurl.com/maocxtj; and Paul Tiyambe
Zeleza, "Mandela's Long Walk with African History,"
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/89927
And, finally, this song, from Soweto Gospel Choir:
http://tinyurl.com/q3e942q
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++
The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond [Draft]
Brussels, 4 December 2013
Prof Dr Mirjam van Reisen, Meron Estefanos, Dr Conny Rijken
Wolf Legal Publishers, Oisterwijk
[Excerpts: full text in PDF available at http://www.eepa.be /
direct URL - http://tinyurl.com/pseamzv]
Chapter 3. Introduction to the trafficking cycle: Sinai and beyond
People as commodities
This book follows on from a previous research study, Human
Trafficking in the Sinai: Refugees between Life and Death (van
Reisen et al. 2012), which describes a new phenomenon of
trafficking of human beings in which people are sold (and sold on)
as 'commodities' for financial gain. For the first study,
interviews were conducted with hostages in the Sinai who were in
contact with family members for the payment of ransom. The data
emerging from these interviews were triangulated with interviews
carried out with survivors of trafficking and people working with
survivors in Tel Aviv, Israel. These interviews cover the period
2010 to the beginning of 2012. The hostages included men, women,
children and babies, all of whom were subjected to torture. While
the purpose of the first publication was to document this
phenomenon and give a voice to the people trapped in the Sinai
Desert, the purpose of this publication is to build on this by
adding to our understanding of the phenomenon, contextualising and
mapping the broader scope of the phenomenon, and identifying
possible solutions.
The trafficking in the Sinai, here referred to as 'Sinai
trafficking', which developed after 2008, is particularly brutal
and is characterised by abduction, displacement, captivity,
extortion, torture, sexual violence and humiliation, serial selling
and killing. The 'trafficking' aspect of the phenomenon involves
the taking of people against their will or by misleading them and
holding them as hostages for ransom or further sale. It can start
as smuggling and evolve into trafficking or it can start straight
away as trafficking. The hostages are often held for some time in
places en route to the Sinai and extorted for ransom.
In the Sinai, the hostages are held in various locations and are
often moved (and sold on) to subsequent locations. Ransoms are
extorted from relatives and friends of the hostages or other third
parties. The trafficking and ransom collection is often part of a
chain of sales and on sales in which value is added at each point.
As the hostages progress through the chain, the amount of ransom
demanded increases to cover the 'investment' made by the
traffickers, often reaching levels that are beyond the capacity of
the hostages' direct family to pay. In the case of Sinai
trafficking, the ransoms are so high that entire villages in the
country of origin need to be mobilised to collect payments.
Relatives in the diaspora are also asked to contribute and the
amounts of the ransoms asked are significant, even for those who
live and work in Europe or the United States of America.
The torture undertaken as part of the Sinai trafficking is cruel
and frequent and is used to force the hostages to initiate contact
with relatives or friends to collect the ransom. Contact takes
place using mobile phones. The torture is often applied while the
telephone conversations are taking place to pressure contacts into
paying the ransom. The torture is functional, but also gratuitous
and sadistic. Sexual violence, rape and group rape -- humiliating
acts of violence that undermine the dignity and self-esteem of the
hostages and leave them with lifelong emotional and physical
injuries -- are frequent. Especially women and young girls are
targeted for sexual-based violence. These acts of violence
contribute to the commoditisation of the hostages by denuding them
of human qualities.
Those who are not able to collect the ransom are often killed. The
killing of fellow hostages adds to the pressure on the remaining
survivors. ... A large number of people have disappeared in the
Sinai, perhaps released and died en route to their destination or
killed. Even if the requested ransom is paid there is no guarantee
that the hostages will be released and, if they are released, that
they will reach safety in Egypt or Israel.
...
The Sinai trafficking affects vulnerable refugees from the Horn of
Africa, many of whom originate from Eritrea. The trafficking trade
is facilitated by the expansion of mobile phones, which are used to
coordinate the trafficking and collect ransoms. Ransom payments are
arranged by mobile phones through money transfer facilities such as
Western Union and MoneyGram or through individual middlemen and
company intermediaries. The illegal financial transactions involve
Eritrean middlemen who collect the ransoms.
The ransoms being demanded by the hostage takers in the Sinai have
rapidly increased since the phenomenon began in approximately 2009,
from a few thousand US dollars to tens of thousands of US dollars.
Initially, no differentiation in ransom was made in terms of the
hostages' country of origin; however, as time went on, higher
ransoms were demanded for particular groups, especially for those
originating from Eritrea, as the hostage takers realised that some
groups were more able to collect ransoms than others.
There is an assumption that the hostages went voluntarily to the
Sinai, either en route to Israel or to other places, motivated by a
search for work. However, the first research study found that this
was not the case and that the vast majority of hostages interviewed
had no intention of going to Israel. In the first study, the
hostages held in the Sinai were categorised as either kidnapped
(and subsequently sold or surrendered to Bedouins in the Sinai) or
smuggled (initially voluntarily, but then sold or surrendered to
Bedouins). The research concluded that the status of the hostages
varied.
Many of the refugees held hostage in the Sinai were kidnapped while
in a refugee camp or on their way to a family reunion in Sudan or
Ethiopia. A significant proportion of refugees were kidnapped from
within refugee camps or surrounding areas, especially in Sudan
(from Shagarab refugee camp) or while working in Kessala (Sudan). A
smaller number of interviewees were taken on their way to Khartoum
(Sudan), from within Khartoum or from Cairo.
The traffickers include Bedouins, who organise the torture houses
in the Sinai. Members of the Rashaida and of the Hidarib tribe are
also involved in the abductions in Sudan and in Eritrea. Eritrean
refugees are involved as assistants to the traffickers. The steps
involved in the Sinai trafficking, as identified in the first study
are typically as following:
Step 1: Initial payment made by the refugee to be smuggled out of
their country of origin
Step 2: Payments made by the refugee to guides en route to
destination (refugee camps at Mai Aini or Shagarab)
Step 3: Abduction; payment demanded from refugee to reach a safe
place (pretext)
Step 4: Sold on is repeated several times, each time increasing the
payment demanded.
Step 5: Release or death
There is a predominance of Eritreans among the victims of Sinai
trafficking, which was explained in the first research study as due
to:
- the large Eritrean diaspora (with finances at their disposal) and
their tightly-knit family and community structure, which increases
the chances of collecting ransoms demanded;
- the relatively large number of Eritrean refugees and lack of
alternatives for Eritrean refugees;
- the relative destitution of Eritrean migrants and inclusion of
Eritrean migrants in the trafficking network; and
- the involvement of (some) Eritrean authorities and military
officials in the trafficking and their links with a criminal
organisation.
In the first research study, the observation was made that the
start of trafficking in the Sinai coincided with the signing of the
Italy-Libya Agreement and that this agreement may have compounded
the rapid emergence of the crisis. Through this agreement, Italy
arranged a de facto push back of refugees to Libya in a bid to
reduce the number of incoming refugees. The agreement especially
affects Eritreans as, due to Eritrea's colonial relations with
Italy and Italy's proximity to the Libyan and Tunisian coast, many
Eritreans try to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
In Libya, Eritrean refugees face persecution, detention and even
deportation back to Eritrea. The refugees are likely to face
prosecution and detention in Eritrea if they return as they would
be accused of having left the country illegally (Eritrea does not
allow its citizens to leave legally). The tragic events in early
October 2013 in which several hundred migrants died while trying to
cross the Mediterranean sea to reach Europe at Lampedusa, Italy
illustrates the disastrous consequences of people taking such risks
to reach Europe.
...
Chapter 8. Conclusions: The Sinai trafficking cycle
In this study we have looked at what happens to people who are
captured, extorted and tortured in the Sinai. Treated as
commodities, sold and resold -- these people are trafficked. The
vocabulary of 'warehouses' and 'auctions' and the negotiation of
the 'price' of the hostages is reminiscent of the age of slavery,
when the value of people was determined by their market price.
In the Sinai, hostages are extorted for phenomenally high ransoms,
which are collected from their families and communities at home and
in the diaspora. As such traffickers create an even broader web of
illegality and trafficking relations. Serial selling and successive
extortion against ransom is common practice. Hostages are brutally
and 'functionally' tortured to support the extortion, and
sadistically, with a level of cruelty that is beyond words and
comprehension. The physical injuries from this torture -- which
includes burning, beating, hanging, dripping melted plastic,
electrocution, mutilation, rape, and cutting off of hands and limbs
-- can be so grave that they impact seriously and lastingly (and
fatally) on the victim's future health. Their injuries incapacitate
the survivors physically and mentally for the rest of their lives.
...
The Sinai survivors are in need of deep physical and mental
support. They are often severely depressed, mentally disturbed and
suicidal. However, the attempt of the world to close their eyes to
the uncomfortable reality of the Sinai (and more broadly of
refugees) has resulted in the almost absolute negation of the needs
of these survivors.
Egypt's legal framework, Law 64 on Trafficking in Persons and the
National Action Plan, provides (in theory) an adequate basis for a
policy focused on the prevention, protection and prosecution of
trafficking in human beings. However, implementation on all three
of these aspects is gravely lacking. While the leaders of the Sinai
trafficking rings seem to enjoy impunity, Sinai survivors are
detained or deported from most countries they reach as part of a
policy of push backs. The 'extortion' is continued as Sinai
survivors are told that they need to collect the money for their
fare to be repatriated to their home country -- the very place they
tried to escape from. The survivors receive little or no legal
support or legal representation and have no real access to asylum
procedures. ...
Those who manage to cross into Israel face a set of severe measures
designed to deny them from seeking asylum and they find themselves
detained or deported. The fence constructed in 2012 along the
Egypt-Israel border creates a physical barrier to the Sinai
survivors entering Israel, even when they have managed to cross the
Egyptian fence and are technically on Israeli soil. Regular and
violent push backs to Egyptian soil pose a further obstacle to them
reaching safety and (sometimes urgently needed) medical help.
Collaboration between the military of Israel and Egypt prevent the
Sinai survivors from seeking protection; exhausted and unarmed
survivors are shot at (and killed or injured) by the military and
suffer other forms of violence at the hands of the military. Sinai
survivors are also deceived by the military, who tell them they are
being brought to Israel, while in reality they are being
transported to a detention centre back in the Sinai. The AntiInfiltration
Law in Israel has the explicit, publicly-stated
political intention to push back African migrants (especially
Eritreans and Sudanese), framed and implemented with the appearance
of legality. In contravention of the ruling of the Supreme Court,
the Government of Israel is continuing with the effective
imprisonment of asylum seekers in so-called 'open' facilities that
are located in the desert and fully fenced.
The interviews conducted with Sinai survivors in detention camps in
Israel revealed that the proposed repatriation is only voluntary to
the extent that the alternatives offered are utterly inhumane.
Sinai survivors should receive a genuine opportunity to state their
case for asylum in Israel, as provided under the law. As refugees,
victims of trafficking and victims of torture, with unsafe
countries of origin and (as trafficking victims) unsafe last
countries of residence, they have multiple grounds for applying for
asylum. The current standard refusal based on a formulation
collectively used for all applicants denies Sinai survivors the
right to introduce their case for asylum.
In Libya, the Sinai survivors undergo detention, forced labour,
torture and rape. They are also extorted for their travel fare for
deportation back to their country of origin and for assistance to
escape from the detention camps. They have no access to legal
counsel or to a court. They have no opportunity to apply for
asylum.
From Libya there are Sinai survivors who cross over to Europe. In
this book we have followed Berhan, who is now 17 years of age and
was tortured and extorted in the Sinai at the age of 16. He was on
the boat that sank on 3 October 2013 near the coast of Lampedusa.
Investigators established that some of the survivors of this
tragedy had been detained, tortured and extorted in Libya. ... The
practice of push back operations at the European borders seems to
be at the detriment of a balanced policy between security and
safety and raises questions about the intention of the policy of
Frontex and European Member States: is it directed at the
protection of asylum seekers or is it in reality just a push back
operation to ensure that the boats of the refugees do not reach
European shores?
The increased understanding reached of the circumstances of
torture, rape and extortion suffered by these migrants (refugees
and Sinai survivors) in North African countries challenges the
justification of the externalisation of the EU's migration policy.
Surely collaboration in the area of migration will have to respect
the basic principle of non-refoulement to countries of origin or
countries of last destination as provided under the international
legal framework. This is not just a legal, but also a moral,
imperative. The phenomenon identified in this study of the Sinai
trafficking cycle is a real test of the EU's commitment to uphold
its international obligations to combat trafficking in persons and
to uphold human rights in the broader context of its migration
policy. In order to deal with these challenges, the Member States
of the European Union have only one option: to cooperate more with
each other to identify joint standards and come up with common
solutions to the issue of migration from North Africa. The EU
Member States must provide the EU institutions with a mandate to
develop and implement a realistic, fair and rights-based migration
policy.
The passengers that crossed the Mediterranean Sea on the boat that
sank at Lampedusa on 3 October 2013 were almost all Eritreans. The
vast majority of the hostages in the Sinai are also Eritreans, and
those who are not are often told to say that they are Eritreans.
Why is this so?
The vulnerability of Eritreans to trafficking is the result of the
deeply repressive military government in Eritrea and the
involvement of the government's military Border Surveillance Unit
in the repression, exploitation, smuggling and trafficking of
Eritrean citizens. This study presents various cases of trafficking
that start inside Eritrea and involve the Eritrean military in the
activities related to the trafficking.
In the analysis of the organisation of abduction, it appears that
there is a close collaboration between Eritrean traffickers and
Sudanese security, military and police officials. Officials in
Egypt are also part of the organisation that works with the
trafficking leaders and provides impunity to those involved in the
trafficking.
...
Based on the interviews conducted for this research and the various
reports and figures available in other sources, it is estimated
that 25,000--30,000 people were victims of Sinai trafficking between
2009 and 2013. This figure includes those that have died,
disappeared, and survived and those currently being held in the
Sinai. It is also estimated that the value of the ransoms paid --
the 'Sinai trafficking industry' -- is, conservatively, USD 600
million over the last five years. The value of the entire Sinai
trafficking cycle (including fees paid after release from the Sinai
to be deported back to their own country, fees paid to help them
escape from detention centres, or fees paid for them to be taken to
Cairo, Israel or Europe) could be much higher.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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