Egypt: A Call to End Torture of Refugees - At UN, 24 Countries Seek
Investigation
17 March 2014
Press release
Members of the UN Human Rights Council called on Egypt and Sudan on March
14, 2014, to investigate and prosecute traffickers for kidnapping,
torturing, and killing refugees in the Sinai Peninsula, said Human Rights
Watch. The 24 countries sponsoring the German-led statement also called on
both countries to identify and prosecute any security officials who may have
colluded with traffickers.
On February 11 Human Rights Watch released a report titled "'I Just Wanted
to Lie Down and Die:' Trafficking and Torture of Eritreans in Sudan and
Egypt," which documents how, since 2010, Egyptian traffickers have tortured
Eritreans for ransom in the Sinai Peninsula usingrape, burning, and
mutilation. It also documents torture by traffickers in eastern Sudan and 29
incidents in which victims said that Sudanese and Egyptian security officers
facilitated trafficker abuses rather than arresting the traffickers and
rescuing their victims.
"Four years on, there is almost complete impunity for traffickers in Sudan
and Egypt who torture refugees and for any security officials working with
them," said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at Human Rights Watch.
"Egypt and Sudan should respond to this call for action at the UN with
concerted efforts to arrest the traffickers and show zero tolerance for
colluding security officials."
The statement at the human rights council and the report recognize that
Sudan has taken some steps to investigate traffickers but say that these
steps have not been sufficient. Although Egypt responded to the Human Rights
Watch report by acknowledging the trafficker abuses for the first time, it
has prosecuted only one trafficker in Cairo, and has neither investigated
nor prosecuted traffickers in Sinai.
Human Rights Watch has received reports of trafficking from eastern Sudan to
Sinai as recently as February.
The failure by both countries to adequately investigate and prosecute
traffickers who severely abuse their victims and collusion by security
officials breaches their obligations under the UN Convention against
Torture, international human rights law, and, in Egypt's case, national and
international anti-trafficking laws, Human Rights Watch said.
The statement also calls on "countries involved" - a reference to Egypt - to
stop detaining trafficking victims and to assist and protect them, including
by allowing them to access the UN refugee agency in Egypt.
Human Rights Watch's report documents that when traffickers freed Eritreans
whose families have paid their ransom, Egyptian border police often
intercepted the Eritreans. The police transferred the Eritreans' cases to
military prosecutors and then detained the Eritreans for months in inhuman
and degrading conditions in Sinai police stations. Egyptian prosecutors have
charged the Eritreans with immigration offenses and denied them access to
urgently needed medical care, as well as to the UN refugee agency. Those
actions violate Egypt's 2010 law on combatting human trafficking, which says
trafficking victims should receive assistance, protection, and immunity from
prosecution.
On March 13, 2014 the European Parliament also called on Egypt and Sudan to
end the trafficker abuses and to investigate allegations of security force
collusion with traffickers.
"Now that these appalling crimes are being addressed at the UN Human Rights
Council, it is high time for Egypt and Sudan to publicly explain how they
plan to address them," Simpson said.