African migrants to Israel

There have been reports over the past week or so of Eritrean and other African refugees attempting the journey to Israel and being held hostage by Arab traders in the Sinai desert. According to the Italian-based human rights organisation EveryOne, the trafficking is under the control of Hamas.

Now BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes travels across the Sinai to meet with the people-traffickers and some of their victims. He makes no mention of any Hamas connection, referring rather to Bedouin smugglers:

It is not the Bedouin way to hurry. First we must drink tea. Our hosts are exquisitely polite, but it is more than two hours before we can finally broach the subject we have come to talk about.

"We have heard that Africans are being held for ransom out here and that women have been raped and men killed," we say.

Their answers are evasive.

"We hear of such tragedies," one man states, "there are people in this business who mistreat migrants."

"It is a very hard journey," he adds. "Some migrants die along the way from thirst or exhaustion."

We press them about reports that people are being held hostage.

"Often the Africans do not have any money," the man answers, "but we still have to feed and house them. Out of 30 maybe only 10 can pay. In this situation we lose money."

As if to prove they do not mistreat their clients the smugglers then produce two young African men from out of the night.

One is barely past childhood. He tells me in broken English that his name is Amar, he is just 15 and from Eritrea.

As we talk, it rapidly becomes apparent that Amar is being held hostage.

He has been waiting with the smugglers for a month to cross to Israel but they will not let him go until his family pays up.

"How much do they want?" I ask.

"Tonight my brother called to say he can send US $2000. They are trying to make a deal," Amar says.

Amar is well-dressed and shows no signs of mistreatment but as we sit and eat with our Bedouin hosts the two Eritreans are made to sit in the corner and watch.

They are not even offered a cup of tea.

It is a telling sign of how the smugglers view the African chattels.

And of the racist attitude of the Arabs towards black Africans.

If you want to get an idea of the full horror of what can happen out in the desert you have to cross the border to Israel.

There are over 30,000 African migrants in the country who have entered illegally from Egypt.

At a Tel Aviv clinic run by the group Physicians for Human Rights, there are hundreds of Eritreans, Ethiopians and Sudanese crowded into the waiting room....

More than a third of the migrant women they treat have been raped. A quarter of the migrants tell of being tortured.

"It is in order to extort money," says Dan Cohen, director of Physicians for Human Rights.

"The smugglers use different methods like torturing. The women are raped and men are buried in sand and left for days to put pressure on them and make the families send money."

More than a thousand Africans are staggering out of the desert to arrive in Israel each month, hoping to start a new life.

Yet the Sinai is huge and unforgiving.

There is no law out there and nobody knows for certain how many more African migrants are being held hostage, raped, or left to die along the desert trails.

Here's a grim report from the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, on Hostages, Torture and Rape in the Sinai Desert. Eritreans and Ethiopians report the worst treatment:

77% of Eritreans and Ethiopians reported physical assault including punching, slapping, kicking and whipping (compared to 63% of patients from other African countries). 23% of Eritreans and Ethiopians reported burning, branding, electric shock, and hanging by the hands or feet.  No patients from other countries reported this phenomenon. 47% of Eritreans and Ethiopians reported seeing others beaten or tortured.  94% of Eritreans and Ethiopians reported being deprived of food and 74% reported being deprived of water. The phenomenon also occurred among other Africans, 80% were deprived of food and 53% deprived of water....

According to repeated accounts, groups of approximately 200-300 Eritrean are brought to Sinai where they are held in metal containers or compounds. Captives undergo torture by burning or beating, as smugglers call their relatives demanding the immediate transfer of funds to be guaranteed transit to the Israeli border. Because of the high ransom price, it often takes weeks or even months for refugees to be taken to the border. It is during this time that women are separated from the group, detained in secluded rooms and subjected to repeated sexual acts, abuse, and rape at the hands of their captors.

On December 3rd, PHR-Israel received new testimony that leads us to believe the situation in the Sinai is growing significantly worse. Whereas victims were previously asked to pay between 2,500-3,000 USD, additional sums are now required as ransom bringing the total amount paid to captors as high as 10,000 USD. According to the accounts we have received from sources close to the hostages currently held in the desert, approximately 220 people are currently being held by the smugglers in a camp in Sinai. The group of 80 individuals that arrived one month ago was joined last week by 140 additional asylum seekers en route to Israel. 

Comments

[Laban]

Aren't Israel building a fence/wall to stop the illegal immigration ?

http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=181778

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/138675

"Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Interior Minister Eli Yishai discussed the possibility of sending some of the thousands of illegal African immigrants in Israel to African and European countries that are willing to accept them. Ayalon said he is talking to his European counterparts, but that it is unlikely that such a plan will succeed.

"Illegal immigrants are endangering Israel's existence," Yishai said. "The south of Israel has fallen under siege." Yishai also suggested harsher punishment for Israelis who employ illegal immigrants, and called for Israel to finish a fence along its border with Egypt.

Netanyahu said he is pushing to build a "ground obstacle along the border with Egypt. I don't care which government office does it; what's more important is to start building quickly, and that is what we'll do."

[Laban]

I suppose there must be Bedu and Bedu. When my wife was working in Israel in the 80s she spent some time with them and said she always felt safe.

[Sadie]

The slave trade of Africans has been part and parcel of Arab lands for more than a 1,000 years. The only change is the century - from the 8th to the 21st.