Date: Tuesday, 20 December 2016
http://palermo.meridionews.it/articolo/50008/migranti-il-regno-di-terrore-del-trafficante-medhanie-venduti-torturati-e-trattati-come-si-fa-con-i-maiali/ Migrants, the reign of terror of the trafficker Medhanie "Sold, tortured and treated like you do with the pigs' SILVIA BUFFA DECEMBER 20, 2016 CHRONICLE - Among the papers in his hand to the man's defense held in Palermo on charges of being Mered, a leader of the trafficking in human beings from Africa landing on European shores, there is also the testimony of an Eritrean locked in Rebibbia prison. In his account of the disturbing details of the trip that many desperate face across the desert to Libya " I saw terrible things, indescribable ." So begins the story of a migrant from Eritrea, currently detained in the prison of Rebibbia in Rome and whose testimony could be crucial in the process currently underway in Palermo against the alleged boss of trafficking in human beings, Medhanie Yedhego Mered . In his story emerges the least known of the trips of hope: the many kilometers that thousands of desperate face before getting on the Libyan coast and sail to Europe. This is where the traffickers as Medhanie commit the most atrocious violence, kidnappings, torture and blackmail to the families of migrants fleeing their home countries. "We were loaded onto a container truck, carrying 200 people at a time, a journey that hopefully lasts on average about 18 hours," says the investigators detained Eritrean, who fled from his city in 2013 . Was the driver of a general in the service of a dictator, against which decides to defect hiding for months in an Ethiopian refugee camp. The trip to Libya , focal hub from whose shores depart the boats laden with migrants, stops almost in the bud. "We were stopped by a band of militiamen, who took me out of the truck and another 30 migrants - reads the statement - Under the threat of weapons we have abducted and kidnapped. We were locked up in a kind of prison in Grumbli ". "There have been subjected to serious torture , with the blades were they doing cuts on the body and whipped us - continues the story - to be freed wanted a ransom of $ 1,200 per migrant ." They are not all, however, who have behind a family able to support such spending. For the less fortunate, then, imprisonment continues inside a room whose walls are covered with photographs and telephone numbers : Each image captures a trafficker in human beings, in which the prisoners are forced to get in touch. One after the other bosses are called until they find one willing to act as guarantor . One short, "willing to pay for you, in fact buy you - says the inmate - because after you became goods of the trafficker ." To buy the today migrant imprisoned in Rebibbia is Medhanie, but to bring the money to free him is his right hand man, Jamal Musa . It is a freedom which, however, lasts a moment, just long enough to move from one cell to another, from a physical slavery to which it takes over an even psychological. " I was lucky that Jamal and Medhanie bought my life , a lot of people have not been heard, in Grumbli torture you to death, or you resell - keeps the minutes of questioning - I leave it to you to imagine what they do to women". Once you become the sole property of the boss, migrants are forced into the mezra of Tripoli , a kind of stock that traffickers fill up to capacity, "we came to be a thousand at times," says the inmate. By mezrha , which some call the first house , no one can go out and imprisonment is punctuated by constant armed surveillance. At least until such time as Medhanie decides to recruit someone who is obligated to cooperate with the criminal organization , in order to pay for the trip to the sea: "There were those who took care of the cooking, the cleaning people, who offered medical assistance and who was put to guard - tells the prisoner of Rome - Refuse to cooperate meant to choose to be killed . " And to survive, therefore, anyone who was willing to obey the boss. Finally comes the summer and with it also the possibility, for the today migrant in Italy, to leave the mezrha and be boarded. The process is always the same: you travel for about 45 minutes in a truck full of people, only to be dumped on a beach . Here, however, the agony will start immediately: "We were locked in a shed, we were about a thousand, sometimes were Libyans who opened and threw to the ground a bit 'of bread and water , as is done with the pigs." The lucky ones inside that shed only remain for a week, during which you just drink a couple of times. " So many people died in there , asphyxiated smells or disease - remember the migrant survived - Then let us out at 15-20 at a time, embarking on a small boat that reached a larger distance from the coast, where there trasbordavano up to fill it. " From there he had finally start another, yet another trip, yet made of violence, torture and humiliation. http://palermo.meridionews.it/media/images/64fbb013-9827-49e2-a472-b2d4dcf0b88d_1200x499_0.5x0.5_1_crop.jpg --Software translation--
