Egypt is world's 3rd worst jailer of journalists - CPJ

Mada Masr
Number of imprisoned journalists reaches global high, Egypt 3rd worst offender: CPJ

Wednesday December 14, 2016

 
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) 2016 has seen a record number of journalists jailed worldwide, marking the worst year on record with an unprecedented 259 behind bars. Egypt is listed as the third worst offender with 25 journalists in jail, preceded by China with 38 and Turkey with 81.

In its latest report, published on Tuesday, the New York-based group writes that, “More journalists are jailed around the world than at any time since the CPJ began keeping detailed records in 1990, with Turkey accounting for nearly a third of the global total.”

The five countries at the top of the list account for 68 percent of all journalists imprisoned worldwide since December 1, 2016. This includes Ethiopia, and Eritrea.

This year’s statistics are a significant increase from the 199 journalists who were behind bars in 2015, and surpass the previous record of 232 imprisoned in 2012.

Turkey’s high ranking this year is a result of an “ongoing crackdown that accelerated after a failed coup attempt in July,” according to the report. The government has increasingly imprisoned journalists seen as sympathetic to exiled opposition cleric Fethullah Gülen or the attempted coup.

Eight of Egypt’s 25 jailed journalists have been locked up for more than three years, since the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013. The remaining 17 have been imprisoned for periods ranging from several weeks to years. This is an increase from the 23 imprisoned in 2015, when Egypt was ranked the second worst jailer of journalists after China.

Some are linked to Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated newspapers like Rassd, while several others are TV correspondents, freelance reporters and photojournalists. Most are being detained in Cairo’s Tora Prison, although some are being held in Alexandria, Port Said, Arish, Fayoum and Gamasa, among others.

One of the most high profile prisoners is freelance photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid — popularly known as Shawkan — who has spent over three years in jail. He was arrested by security forces for photographing the violent dispersal of the Rabea sit-in. Shawkan, who suffers from Hepatitis C, has claimed he has been denied access to necessary medical care, and has not yet been sentenced by a court.

Detained on July 3, 2013, Rassd photojournalist Mahmoud Abdel Nabi has spent the most time behind bars. He has remained in detention for over three years and five months, pending his sentencing.

The CPJ has reported that 12 journalists have been killed in Egypt since 1992, seven of them since July 3, 2013.

In November the committee criticized President Abdel Fattah al–Sisi for continuing to imprison journalists, impose travel bans on media workers and for the sentencing of three top members of the Journalists Syndicate.

In November, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) included both Sisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on its list of 35 global press predators.

It ranked Egypt as 159th out of 180 states on the 2016 World Press Freedom index.

Egyptian troops shoot dead 15 Sudanese migrants, wound 8 others on border with Israel

Mada Masr
15 Sudanese migrants killed by security forces on Egypt's border with Israel

Sunday, November 15, 2015
 

Egyptian border guards killed 15 Sudanese migrants at the Sinai border with Israel on Sunday as they were reportedly caught in the crossfire between security forces and Bedouin traffickers, according to the Associated Press. 

They were killed 17 kilometers South of Rafah City, where eight others were also shot in the chest and abdomen as they attempted to jump the border fence, AP reported, quoting unnamed security and hospital sources in the Sinai Peninsula.

Those injured are now being interrogated, after reportedly ignoring warning shots by security forces, AP added.

There has been little coverage of this fatal incident in Egyptian media or by government and security officials.

The privately owned Cairo News Portal issued a similar report, citing Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Israeli radio.

The incident is one of the bloodiest since December 2005, when Egyptian police forces killed 23 Sudanese nationals — including women, children, and the elderly — who had established a protest camp in the Mohandiseen district of Cairo. Consequently, many have sought asylum in Israel since 2006.

According to figures compiled by Human Rights Watch, Egyptian forces killed 10 people attempting to cross the border with Israel throughout 2007. In 2008, another 23 Sudanese and Sub-Saharan Africans were killed by Egyptian forces, and many others have experienced severe physical and psychological abuse from human traffickers.

Israel’s Interior Ministry claims there are over 45,000 African migrants in the country, most of whom are Sudanese and Eritrean refugees who have fled war and violence, although Israel classes them predominantly as economic migrants. Many have cited discrimination and threats of deportation by the Israeli state.

From 2011 to its completion in 2013, Israel fortified its border with Egypt by building a barrier equipped with cameras, motion detectors and radar to keep people from crossing.



*Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

Egypt/Sudan: End Torture of Refugees

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH  
Egypt/Sudan: A Call to End Torture of Refugees

At UN, 24 Countries Seek Investigation

March 17, 2014

(Geneva) – 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. 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 using rape, 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.

Egypt, Sudan: Human-trafficking of refugees must be stopped

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Egypt, Sudan: Kidnap and trafficking of refugees and asylum-seekers must be stopped

April 3, 2013

Egypt and Sudan must make urgent and concerted efforts to stop asylum-seekers and refugees being kidnapped from camps in Sudan, forcibly transported to Egypt, and being severely abused in the Sinai desert, Amnesty International said in a new briefing.

For over two years, refugees and asylum-seekers have been kidnapped from in and around the Shagarab refugee camps in eastern Sudan, near the Eritrean border. The vast majority of victims are Eritrean. They are then trafficked to Egypt’s Sinai desert, where they are held captive by Bedouin criminal gangs while ransom payments are demanded from their families.
 
Amnesty International has received repeated reports of brutal violence used against captives in Sinai, including rape and sexual abuse, beatings, burning and other violent and cruel treatment.
 
The captors reportedly telephone their victims’ relatives while inflicting violence in order to extort money, often demanding ransoms of up to USD 30-40,000.
 
Some refugees and asylum-seekers are murdered when their families are unable to pay the ransom, while others die from injuries or because of the extremely harsh conditions of captivity. One teenage boy held for eight months in Sinai witnessed seven deaths among the other captives during that time.
 
The organization is calling on the Egyptian security forces to investigate urgently reports that refugees and asylum-seekers are being held captive in compounds in northeast Sinai.
 
“The Egyptian authorities have a duty to protect any individual on their soil, and must urgently take steps to free all people held captive and subjected to appalling abuses in Sinai, and provide them with immediate medical attention and access to asylum procedures and support,” said Claire Beston, Amnesty International’s Eritrea researcher.
 
Amnesty International continues to receive fresh reports of kidnappings in and around the Shagarab camps, and is alarmed at the apparently inadequate safety and security provision there. Security measures in the camps must be urgently improved.  
 
“It is particularly worrying that numerous victims have alleged that the members of the Sudanese National Security Service are involved in the kidnappings near the borders with Eritrea and Ethiopia. 

The Sudanese government must investigate all allegations of the involvement or complicity of Sudanese officers and where sufficient evidence is found, individuals must be arrested and prosecuted,” said Claire Beston.
 
According to testimonies gathered by Amnesty International, captives in Sinai suffer extreme violence and cruelty, including repeated rape and other forms of sexual violence, beatings with chains, burning with heated plastic and metal, electric shocks, suspension from the ceiling, and being doused with gasoline and set on fire.
 
An Eritrean survivor describes what happened to one of the other captives who was ‘made an example of’ because he said his family could not pay: 
 
“He was bleeding all over. After more beatings, they poured petrol on him and set him on fire. After he died, they left his body in the room with us until it became rotten and worms started crawling. They forced all of us in turns to hold him.”
 
Amnesty International urges the governments of Egypt and Sudan to make significant efforts to bring anyone involved in the crimes of kidnapping and human trafficking to justice.
 
Amnesty International also calls on the countries along the trafficking route – running from Eritrea through Ethiopia and Sudan into Egypt, to work together to bring an end to the kidnapping, trafficking and horrific abuses, and to increase engagement with international agencies’ initiatives to tackle these crimes.
 
However, it must be ensured that regional cooperation does not infringe in any way on the rights and safety of refugees and asylum seekers. 
 
The majority of victims of abuses in Sinai who have been freed are now in Israel, while some are in Egypt and Ethiopia. Destination countries, including Israel, must put in place transparent systems to identify victims of trafficking and other abuses, and provide victims with access to medical, psycho-social and rehabilitation services and to fair asylum procedures.

Israel completes bulk of Egyptian border fence

REUTERS

Israel completes bulk of Egypt border fence

January 2, 2013

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel completed the main segment of a razor-wire fence along its border with Egypt on Wednesday, a barrier against illegal migrants and Islamist militants hiding out in the lawless Sinai region.

The five-meter high fence, bolstered by military surveillance equipment, is touted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as proof of his commitment to the Jewish state's security as he campaigns for a national election on January 22.

Once the final 14 kilometer (8.5 mile) section is completed within three months, the fence will stretch from Israel's Red Sea port of Eilat to the Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean.

In the desert beyond, hardline Islamist groups have expanded in a security vacuum caused by the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and efforts to re-impose central authority have been slow.

Islamist gunmen killed at least 16 Egyptian border guards in Sinai last August and hijacked an armored vehicle which they smashed across the frontier before they were killed by Israeli forces.

With security and illegal immigration a target of his campaign, Netanyahu travelled by military helicopter to the southern frontier for a ceremony marking the completion of the 230 km (143 miles) section of fence.

His government has accelerated its construction, deported some migrants and imposed legal penalties on Israelis who hire them without work permits.

Thirty-six migrants crossed illegally into Israel last month and were arrested, compared with 2,153 who entered a year ago, Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

"Just as we stopped completely the infiltration into Israeli cities, we will succeed in the next mission - the repatriation of tens of thousands of infiltrators already in Israel to their home countries," it cited Netanyahu as saying at the ceremony.

More than 60,000 Africans have entered Israel on foot in recent years seeking work or refuge. They have stirred fears for public order and some have come under racially-motivated attack.
The bulk are from Sudan or Eritrea and Israel's ability to repatriate them is limited. Sudan's government is hostile to Israel and Somalia is deemed a ravaged danger zone by refugee advocates.

Israel portrays the vast majority of the migrants as illegal job-seekers. Humanitarian agencies say they should be considered for asylum.

*Reporting by Jeffrey Heller & Dan Williams; Editing: Tom Pfeiffer

 **Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Baz Ratner

 

Arab states amongst the worst violators of press freedoms

AlBawaba

Worst countries for censorship: Syria, Saudi, Eritrea

May 3, 2012

Eritrea experiences the worst censorship in the world, while Equatorial Guinea is among the five most heavily-censored countries, says the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

In a report released ahead of World Press Freedom Day, the committee also notes that Ethiopia and Sudan only just escape being named in the world's "10 most censored countries".

The respected, New York-based lobby names the 10 countries, in order of appearance on the list as: Eritrea, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Equatorial Guinea, Uzbekistan, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Belarus.

Of Eritrea, the CPJ says: "Only state news media are allowed to operate in Eritrea, and they do so under the complete direction of Information Minister Ali Abdu. Journalists are conscripted into their work and enjoy no editorial freedom; they are handed instructions on how to cover events."

It quotes an exiled Eritrean journalist as saying: "Every time [a journalist] had to write a story, they arrange for interview subjects and tell you specific angles you have to write on... We usually wrote lots about the president [Isaias Afewerki] so that he's always in the limelight."

Also noting that Eritrea shuts out the international media, the CPJ adds: "Journalists suspected of sending information outside the country are thrown into prison without charge or trial and held for extended periods of time without access to family or a lawyer. The government expelled the last accredited foreign correspondent in 2007."

Access to the Internet is also restricted in Eritrea: all service providers have to connect to the world through a state-operated company, access is affordable only to a few, and a plan to introduce mobile Internet connectivity was abandoned after the Arab Spring uprisings.

In Equatorial Guinea, the CPJ says the government of Teodoro Obiang Nguema "tightly controls all news and information over national airwaves. Technically, some outlets are privately owned, but none are independent, as Obiang and his associates exert direct or indirect control. State media do not provide international news coverage unless Obiang or another official travels abroad. Censors enforce rigid rules to ensure the regime is portrayed positively; journalists who don't comply risk prison under criminal statutes including defamation."

Here too, the government controls information conveyed abroad: "Security agents closely shadow foreign journalists and restrict photography or filming that documents poverty. The government paid three Washington-based public relations firms a total of US$1.2 million between April and October 2010 to produce positive news about Equatorial Guinea, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Justice."

Although Ethiopia and Sudan escape mention in the top 10 list of offenders, the CPJ notes that in the former, censorship has become tighter in recent years, and that the government appoints media managers and licenses media. Also, "anti-terrorism legislation criminalizes any reporting that the Ethiopian government deems favorable to opposition movements designated as terrorist".

In Sudan, "authorities... frequently confiscate newspapers, which are the widespread form of media. This year, security forces have increasingly adopted the technique of confiscating newspaper editions wholesale to inflict financial losses on publishers".

The CPJ used 15 criteria to make its judgements, including "blocking of websites; restrictions on electronic recording and dissemination; the absence of privately owned or independent media; restrictions on journalist movements; license requirements to conduct journalism; security service monitoring of journalists; jamming of foreign broadcasts; blocking of foreign correspondents."

Egyptian border guards kill African migrant

Associated Press
Egyptian border guards kill African migrant

Dec. 05, 2011

Ashraf Sweilam

EL-ARISH, Egypt — A security official says Egyptian police have shot dead an African migrant and wounded three others near the border with Israel.

The security official says the four men, all in their 20s, were trying to illegally enter Israel from Egypt's Taba border region in the Sinai Peninsula on Monday.

He says three wounded men are Eritreans. The fourth, who was shot dead, did not have identification on him.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

Thousands of Africans try to reach Israel from Egypt every year, risking a dangerous desert crossing in hopes of getting work or asylum.

Egyptian border guards trying to stem the flow of illegal migration into Israel have killed dozens of migrants in recent years.

Egyptian soldiers shoot migrant near Israel border

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Egyptian soldiers injure migrant near Israel border

October 9,2010

El-Arish, Egypt - A migrant was shot and injured by Egyptian security forces Saturday during a failed attempt to smuggle himself into neighbouring Israel.

Security forces said the Eritrean national was caught near the Sinai peninsula's border with Israel along with two other compatriots and five Sudanese, bringing the total number of migrants arrested there this week to 22.

The officials said the injured man did not respond to warnings to stop. He was taken to hospital for treatment.

HRW tells Egypt to stop shooting migrants

Agence France-Presse
HRW tells Egypt to stop shooting migrants

October 8, 2010

CAIRO — Human Rights Watch urged Egypt on Friday to stop shooting foreign migrants who try to cross into Israel, as the African country began chairing the United Nations' refugee agency.

The New York-based rights group said Egyptian border police have killed at least 85 unarmed migrants trying to cross into Israel since July 2007.

"Egypt today becomes chair of the UNHCR's governing body, while back home it shoots unarmed migrants and blocks UNHCR's access to detainees seeking the agency's protection," it quoted deputy Middle East director Joe Stork as saying.

"To be consistent with its position as the executive committee's new chair, Egypt needs to put its own house in order."

The group said most of the migrants killed were Sudanese or Eritrean.

"It is likely that at least some had a reasonable case for asylum," it said.

Egypt has defended its policy and says border guards first fire warning shots in the air.

The border between Israel and Egypt, which runs along the desert of the Sinai peninsula, is also used by drug traffickers.

A Cairo-based representative of HRW told AFP more migrants were killed trying to leave Egypt than any other country.

"This is the worst border in the world now in terms of the number of lethal shootings of unarmed migrants," said Heba Morayef. "It is the only border where this many migrants are shot on the way out."

Israel, which is constructing a fence along the border to stop the migrants, has asked Egypt to do more to stem the influx. The migrants complain of discrimination and poverty in Egypt.

The group accused Egypt of impeding the UNHCR's access to imprisoned asylum seekers and "unlawfully" deporting recognised refugees.

"Egypt should also stop impeding the refugee agency's access to foreign nationals detained in Egypt who want to claim asylum," it said.

"If Egypt as the chair of UNHCR's executive committee continues to shoot at foreign nationals trying to leave and prevents the refugee agency from fulfilling its protection mandate, it will discredit not only itself but also UNHCR," Stork said.

Egypt: Police Kill Sudanese Attempting To Enter Israel

The Canadian Press
Egyptian police kill Sudanese trying to enter Israel

Ashraf Sweilam

(CP) – Sep 10, 2010

EL-ARISH, Egypt — An Egyptian security official says police have killed a Sudanese migrant trying to cross into Israel.

The official says the police fired warning shots but the migrant refused to surrender on Friday about 100 miles (160 kilometres) south of the Rafah border crossing with Israel.

The official said police also arrested two Eritrean migrants south of Rafah in a separate incident.

They Eritreans said they had paid $1,000 each to Bedouin traffickers to help them cross into Israel.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

Many migrants seeking political asylum and jobs try to cross into Israel with the help of Bedouin traffickers. Egypt has killed dozens of migrants in the past two years, drawing criticism from rights groups.

Egypt: A Prison for African Migrants?

Ethiopian Journal News
The Egyptian territory has become a human prison for African migrants

Tuesday, 24 August 2010

They are hung from trees by metal chains attached to their arms and provided with plastic bags to collect their urine to drink when they are thirsty. They are gang raped, tortured with electricity and held prisoner in desert camps. When they escape they are shot, either by their Beduin captors or by Egyptian police. These savage and disturbing details, published piecemeal over the years, are just a part of the picture of what is being done in Egypt’s Sinai desert to African migrants.

The story probably begins with the end of the Ethiopia-Eritrea War in 2000, the beginning of the Darfur genocide in 2003 and the end of the war in South Sudan in 2005, each of which in its own way created numerous refugees. In December 2005, Egypt began cracking down on African migrants, in one infamous incident many (between 10 and 60) were massacred by police attempting to clear a park of their encampments.

This helped provide incentive to travel further afield, with Europe a tough destination, they trickled into Sinai and thence to Israel. Eritreans, who now make up the majority of refugees (10,000+), have been arriving in Israel since 2007. In that year it was reported that 48 African refugees deported to Egypt by Israel had been abused and then disappeared. One migrant claimed Egyptians imprisoned him and “poured boiling water on his body.”

At the time Egypt was busy trying to get rid of the refugees, sending them back to Sudan if possible. Criticism about the “disappearances” was raised by activists in 2007 mostly to complain that Israel should stop its “hot return” policy of immediately returning refugees to Egypt. One report alleged that 139 refugees had disappeared.

What the disappearances highlight is the increasing brutalization meted out to Africans in Sinai beginning in 2007.

Between July 2007 and October 2008, the media reported that 33 Africans were shot in Sinai while trying to cross the border into Israel. By March of 2010 more than sixty had been killed. The man charged with implementing the policy is General Muhammad Shousha, governor of north Sinai. For him it is quite clear; “of course it’s not a mistake that we shoot them, it’s necessary to shoot them. To deal with an infiltrator, he has to be fired at.” The migrants reported that the Egyptian border guards shot at women and children and that if they were captured alive they were then subjected to beatings and insults; “you are a Jew” and “you are the enemy of the Arabs and of Islam.”

They also claimed that the Egyptians wanted to know who trafficked them.

Suspicion of the Africans is part of a larger story. Some Egyptians argue that the smuggling is bad because it strengthens Israel; one Sinai resident claims “we are helping Israel. These migrants will go, take away Arabs’ jobs, work in agriculture and construction and it will all contribute to Israel’s plans.”

The privately owned, independent Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Youm has done some intrepid reporting on other horrors experienced by the migrants while in Sinai. An Ethiopian named Youssef related that he had gone to Khartoum in Sudan to work in a hotel and was approached by a Sudanese man who promised him a job in Egypt. He boarded a truck with others from Sudan and Eritrea and was transported in five days to Sinai. There he discovered the lure of a job was a scam and instead he was imprisoned by his Beduin smugglers. They demanded $3,000 and told him they would then take him to the Israeli border. Another man named Ali, also from Ethiopia, experienced a similar bait-and-switch.

He was beaten daily and told to phone family and raise money for his release.

IN JANUARY the Israeli police arrested an Ethiopian and two Eritrean migrants for involvement in extortion and human smuggling. The three men had been hired by Beduin in Sinai to contact families of imprisoned Africans in Israel and extort money for the release of their family members being held in Sinai.

When arrested the men had $100,000, evidently collected to be sent on to Sinai for the release of African refugees. The stories coming out of Sinai are horrifying.

Migrants speak of desert camps run by the Rashida Beduin tribe. They are watched over by armed guards and tortured by being scalded with heated metal bars.

Modern day slavery exists. One woman, Wizar Tasapai from Eritrea, was tied up and kept in a fuel tank and told her kidneys would be sold if her family in Israel didn’t pay $2,800. The Beduin told her cousin “the girl is in a bad condition.

She is beaten and raped.” Her family paid the ransom to an Eritrean at the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv and he transferred it to Beduin. The woman eventually made it to Israel. Rape seems to be a typical brutality carried out by the Beduin smugglers against African women. An Eritrean woman reported to the Israeli authorities in February 2010 that she had been raped by eight Beduin men in Sinai.

A July 2010 report noted that women were often separated from the men and that they were all held in prisons underground.

In the same month the bodies of 10 African migrants were found mutilated in Sinai.

According to the Beduin of northern Sinai, the Egyptian security forces arrest them on smuggling charges.

But a recent incident seems to contradict those claims. On August 14th it was reported that 300 Africans were being held prisoner at a Beduin camp. One of them managed to steal a weapon and free several others. In an ensuing gun battle six Eritreans were killed. Egyptian police fanned out from al-Mahdeyya village, south of Rafah and shot two fleeing Eritreans and arrested 17 others.

There was no report that the Egyptians tried in any way to free those migrants being held captive. The Egyptian police seem primarily interested in killing or expelling the migrants.

Today Sinai has become a human prison, a place of death, gang rape and murder. While initially many of the Africans were refugees it seems now that, as with the sex slave trade in Eastern European women that was a staple of the 1990s in Sinai, the slave trade in Africans in Sinai has become a business – one where victims are recruited and then transported to Israel only as a way to get rid of the human cargo.

Israel has decent relations with Egypt’s security forces in Sinai. It is time to send the message that only a massive and coordinated crackdown on the Beduin smugglers will stop the flow of illegal immigrants, help Egypt’s image and end the hell that Sinai has become.

Eritrean migrant dies after Israel border shooting

REUTERS
Eritrean migrant dies after Israel border shooting

23 Aug 2010

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Aug 23 (Reuters) - An Eritrean migrant who was shot by Egyptian police ten days ago while trying to slip into Israel died late on Sunday, medical sources said, raising the migrant death toll along the Egypt-Israel border.

The death of the 25-year-old man brings the number of migrants killed by smugglers and police in the incident to eight.

At least 30 migrants have died along the sensitive border so far this year, with at least 25 killed by Egyptian police and the rest by smugglers. Border forces killed a total of 19 migrants in 2009.

Egyptian police also detained 19 African migrants who attempted to cross the border in a separate incident on Sunday, security sources said.

The Sinai penninsula is a major transit route for African migrants and refugees seeking work or asylum in Israel. It is also used by smugglers to ferry narcotics and weapons into Israel along with a range of goods into the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Egypt has come under pressure from Israel to stop the flow of migrants through their joint border, as well as from international rights groups who want it to investigate the suspected use of excessive force against unarmed migrants.

Security forces say they fire at migrants only after repeated orders to stop are ignored, and that in some cases smugglers have opened fire on border police.

(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed; Writing by Yasmine Saleh)

(Editing by Nina Chestney and Noah Barkin)

Seven Eritreans Shot Dead at Egypt-Israel Border

Agence France Presse
Eritrean death toll on Israel-Egypt border rises
August 15, 2010

EL-ARISH, Egypt — An Eritrean woman shot in clashes with smugglers and police on Egypt's border with Israel earlier in the week died of her injuries on Sunday, raising the death toll to seven, a security official said.

The woman was among a group of African migrants who were trying to sneak into Israel from Egypt on Friday when the deadly clashes broke out.

Four Eritreans were killed on the spot by smugglers when migrants seized their weapons in a bid to escape, while two others were shot dead by Egyptian police barring them from illegally crossing the border.

The police detained 22 migrants on Friday and launched a manhunt for other members of the group estimated to number 60 -- some of whom were said to be armed -- and for the smugglers.

On Saturday, four of the migrants managed to cross into Israel, five others were arrested and two -- an Eritrean and a Sudanese -- were wounded as border guards opened fire, the official said.

Friday's smuggling operation turned deadly when the traffickers demanded more money to release the migrants after a failed bid to smuggle them across the border, migrants told police.

Twenty-nine African migrants have now been killed this year trying to cross to Israel in search of a better life and job prospects, 24 of them by Egypt's police, according to the security services, compared to 19 last year.

Agence France Presse
Six Eritreans 'shot dead on Egypt-Israel border'
August 14, 2010

EL-ARISH, Egypt — Smugglers and police have shot dead six Eritreans near the Israeli border, in the latest case of illegal crossings that have become perilous, an Egyptian security official said on Saturday.

The deadly clashes took place late on Friday after the African migrants seized the weapons of the people traffickers in a bid to escape, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said four Eritreans -- three men and a woman -- were killed in an exchange of fire between the migrants and smugglers, and police shot dead two Eritreans from the same group as they tried to cross illegally into Israel.

The police detained 22 migrants, five of whom were wounded in the violence, and were still searching for the smugglers as well as for other members of the group estimated to number 60, the security official said.

After a failed attempt to smuggle the migrants into Israel, the traffickers had demanded money for their release, migrants told the police.

The deaths bring to 28 the number of African migrants killed so far this year in attempts to cross to Israel in search of a better life and job prospects, 24 of them by Egypt's police, according to the security services.

The figure compares with 19 migrants killed last year in Egypt, a country with a 1979 peace treaty with Israel which has called for stricter border controls. Most of the migrants hail from Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Cairo has rejected harsh criticism from human rights groups of its policy of using potentially lethal force against migrants along its 250-kilometre (150-mile) border with Israel.

The Sinai desert border has become a major trafficking route for African migrants seeking jobs and for east European women headed for the sex trade.

Egyptian Police Kill Two Eritrean Migrants Bound For Israel

AFP
Egypt kills Eritrean migrant at Israel border

July 7, 2010

EL-ARISH, Egypt (AFP) — Egyptian police shot and killed an Eritrean migrant as he tried to cross the border illegally into Israel, a security official said.

Police had warned the 36-year-old man to stop and when he refused they fired shots, the official said.

He was shot in the pelvis and died from internal bleeding. His body was then taken to the nearby El-Arish hospital, the official added.

The man's death brings to 20 the number of African migrants killed so far this year when attempting the crossing in search of a better life and job prospects in Israel.

Cairo has rejected harsh criticism from human rights groups of its policy of using potentially lethal force against the migrants along the 250-kilometre (150-mile) border.


BBC News
Egyptians shoot African migrant trying to enter Israel

Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Egyptian border guards have shot dead a woman as she tried to cross the border illegally from Egypt into Israel.

The woman, who was Eritrean, had ignored orders to stop and was shot in the stomach and leg, officials said.

At least three other people, all Eritrean, were detained, including a child aged four.

Human rights activists have criticised Egyptian soldiers for killing dozens of African migrants at the border in the past two years.

The woman, 38, was shot close to the Egypt-Israeli border in central Sinai.

The death brings to 19 the number of African migrants killed this year while attempting the crossing into Israel, according to the AFP news agency.

At least 17 migrants were killed at the Egypt-Israel border in 2009. Egyptian police claim they are trying to control people-trafficking.

UN urges Egypt to stop shooting at migrants

Agence France Presse
UN urges Egypt to stop shooting at migrants
March 2, 2010

(AFP) GENEVA — The UN human rights chief on Tuesday urged Egyptian forces to stop shooting at African migrants trying to enter Israel illegally through Egypt, after 60 were killed in the past two and a half years.

"While migrants often lose their lives accidentally when travelling in over-crowded boats, or trying to cross remote land borders, I know of no other country where so many unarmed migrants and asylum seekers appear to have been deliberately killed in this way by government forces," Navi Pillay said.

"It is a deplorable state of affairs, and the sheer number of victims suggests that at least some Egyptian security officials have been operating a shoot-to-kill policy... Sixty killings can hardly be an accident."

Most of the migrants hail from sub-Saharan Africa's Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia, and have been heading for Israel.

The latest victim was killed at the weekend, bringing the number of fatal shootings to nine in the first two months of 2010 alone.

"The Egyptian government should issue an immediate order to its security forces to ensure that firearms are used in strict compliance with international standards," said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in a statement.

She also urged an "independent and credible inquiry into the killings."

"There needs to be clarity about what has occurred, what policies have been applied to migrants trying to cross this border, and what specific orders have been given to security forces patrolling the area."

The Sinai desert border between Egypt and Israel has become a major trafficking route for migrants from Africa and east European women headed to work voluntarily or involuntarily in the sex trade.

Egypt has stepped up border controls in recent years but has drawn criticism from human rights watchdogs for its readiness to use force to prevent illegal crossings.

Egyptian Police Kill Yet Another Migrant At Israeli Border

REUTERS
Egypt Police Kill Migrant At Israel Border
February 23, 2010

EL-ARISH, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian police shot and killed an Ethiopian migrant Tuesday, injured two others and arrested 10 as they tried to cross the Egyptian-Israeli border, medical and security sources said.

The death is the third this week and brings the toll of migrants killed at the sensitive border this year to eight. At least 19 migrants were killed by Egyptian border guards last year.

The Sinai border is a main transit route for African migrants and refugees seeking work or asylum in Israel. Egypt has come under pressure from Israel to staunch the flow, while rights groups complain about the methods of the border police.

The man was shot in the back at the border and later died in a hospital in Egyptian Rafah. He identified himself as an Ethiopian but did not carry documentation, medical sources said.

The two injured, a 23-year-old Eritrean and 20-year-old Ethiopian, were transferred to el-Arish hospital.

Analysts and aid workers say the flow of migrants from the Horn of Africa through Egypt to Israel has increased as it has become more difficult to travel on other routes, such as via Libya to Europe.

Eritreans make up the largest single group of people trying to cross into Israel from Egypt, though Ethiopians and Sudanese also make the trek.

Amnesty International earlier this month called on Egypt to check their border guards use of excessive force against unarmed migrants, in a week when four migrants were killed.

Security forces say they only fire at migrants after repeated orders to stop are disregarded and that smugglers who ferry migrants to the border sometimes fire on security forces.

*(Reporting by Rasha Kamal and Yusri Mohamed; Writing by Dina Zayed; Jon Boyle)

Egyptian Police Kill 2 African Migrants Near Israeli Border

AFP
Egypt police kill two African migrants near Israel border
Sunday February 21, 2010

EL-ARISH, Egypt — Egyptian police shot dead two African migrants as they attempted to enter Israel illegally on Sunday, a security official told AFP.

Both men, whose nationalities are not known because they were not carrying identity papers, died on the spot after being shot three times each, the official said.

He said police opened fire after the men refused orders to stop.

In a separate incident on Saturday, an Eritrean man and two Ethiopians were wounded after police shot them also for trying to cross the border into Israel.

The three were taken to El-Arish hospital in north Sinai, where two are said to be in critical condition, the official said.

Egyptian border guards often shoot at African migrants who pay smugglers for passage into Israel to escape poverty and look for work.

Israel has insisted that Egypt clamp down on the traffic, and has approved the construction of barriers along the two countries' 250-kilometre (155-mile) border.

HRW - Egypt: Stop Killing Migrants in Sinai

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Egypt: Stop Killing Migrants in Sinai

Israel Should Stop Returning Migrants to Egypt Without Allowing Asylum Claims

(New York, September 10, 2009) – Egyptian authorities should bring an immediate end to the unlawful killings of migrants and asylum seekers near Egypt’s Sinai border with Israel, Human Rights Watch said today. According to news reports, Egyptian border guards shot and killed four migrants on September 9, 2009, bringing to at least 12 the number killed since May as they tried to cross into Israel.

General Muhammad Shousha, the governor of North Sinai, was quoted after the recent killings justifying the policy of shooting at the migrants as “necessary.” The latest killings come just days before President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel are scheduled to hold high-level talks in Cairo on September 13.

“Egypt has every right to manage its borders, but using routine lethal force against unarmed migrants – and potential asylum seekers – would be a serious violation of the right to life,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “These individuals appeared to post no threat to the lives of the border guards or anyone else. Attempted border crossings are not a capital offense.”

Human Rights Watch said that Israel’s policy of forcibly returning to Egypt some of those who do make it across, without considering any possible asylum claims, also violates international law.

Al Masry Al Youm, an independent Egyptian daily, on September 9 quoted Shousha as saying: “Of course it’s not a mistake that we shoot them – it’s necessary to shoot them. To deal with an infiltrator, he has to be fired at. If we say, ‘Stop where are you going?’ he’s not going to stop so we have to shoot him. The distance to the border is only a few meters so if the infiltrator does not realize that if he goes near the border he will be shot at, the situation will be chaotic.”

Human Rights Watch previously documented that, between July 2007 and October 2008, Egyptian border guards killed at least 33 migrants and wounded scores of others at or near the Sinai border with Israel.

Some wounded migrants manage to cross into Israel. Visitors who regularly visit Ketziot prison in Israel, where the migrants are taken, told Human Rights Watch that they typically see five or more migrants who have recently been treated at the Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva for gunshot wounds after crossing the border with Egypt. The consistency of injuries, as well as the reported deaths, indicate that Egyptian border guards frequently resort to lethal force in their efforts to prevent people from crossing the border.

Under international law, security officials acting in a law enforcement capacity may use lethal force only as a proportional and necessary response to a threat to life. There is no evidence that the Egyptian border guards used lethal force in order to protect their lives or the lives of anyone else. The UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms provide that law enforcement officials “shall, as far as possible, apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of force” and may use force “only if other means remain ineffective.” When the use of force is unavoidable, law enforcement officials must “exercise restraint in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offence.”

Human Rights Watch recognizes that the security situation in Sinai is complicated and that the government has legitimate security concerns. On August 3, smugglers shot an Egyptian border guard dead in an exchange of fire. However, these security concerns do not justify shooting unarmed migrants and refugees at all points along the 200-kilometer Sinai border.

Human Rights Watch also criticized Israel’s policy of forcibly returning to Egypt, in violation of international refugee law, some migrants who do make it across the border and are captured near the border by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), without granting them an opportunity to present asylum claims.

An Israeli reserve soldier, testifying before an Israeli court, said that on June 13, his unit apprehended near the border with Egypt a group of 10 migrants and asylum seekers who identified themselves as Eritrean. His deputy commander ordered them to be returned to Egypt “if there is no one from Darfur among them.”

“When the people understood we were about to return them to the Egyptian policemen who arrived at the place,” the soldier continued, “they started to cry and beg. We did not understand the language they spoke, but it was obvious they were afraid and it was terrible. We ignored their pleas and transferred them to the Egyptian policemen who gathered on the other side of the fence.”

Migrants and refugees who are forcibly returned to Egypt face arbitrary arrest and detention, unfair trials before military courts, and forcible deportation without the chance to make asylum claims.

Egyptian authorities are arresting an increasing number of refugees and migrants as they try to cross the border or when they are returned by Israel, and charging them with illegal entry. Egyptian security officers arrested 85 refugees and migrants between January and May, but the number jumped to 144 in June and 169 in July. The Egyptian authorities hold the refugees and migrants in detention centers in Aswan, New Valley, Red Sea, and North Sinai governorates and deny the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) access to them. They are subsequently tried before military courts, which do not meet international fair trial standards.

Under international human rights and refugee law, Israel and Egypt are obliged to assess the protection needs of the migrants and asylum seekers on their territory, including those apprehended by their security forces. Neither country should return anyone to a country where the person would face the risk of torture, persecution or other ill-treatment.

Egypt should also allow UNHCR access to all asylum seekers in custody, including those not yet registered with the agency, who claim a need for international protection. Under the terms of a 1954 memorandum of understanding, Egypt has devolved all responsibility for refugee status determination to the refugee agency. Under these circumstances, Egyptian officials need to ensure that UNHCR has access to all detained migrants to give them the opportunity to present asylum claims. Only after concluding that process could Egypt consider deporting those who fall outside the protection of international refugee and human rights law.

Eritreans, who form a large proportion of African migrants and refugees crossing the Sinai, are at particularly high risk if returned to Eritrea by Israel or Egypt. The UNHCR has recommended that host governments refrain from forcibly returning rejected asylum seekers to Eritrea because it is likely that all returned Eritreans will be subjected to detention and torture. Eritrea routinely imprisons individuals caught trying to flee the country and issues “shoot-to-kill” orders for anyone found crossing the border without permission.

***

To read the November 2008 Human Rights Watch report, “Sinai Perils: Risks to Migrants, Asylum Seekers, and Refugees in Egypt and Israel,” please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/11/12/sinai-perils-0

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Egypt, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/egypt

For more information, please contact:

In Washington, DC, Heba Morayef (English, Arabic, French): +1-347-259-4194 (mobile)

In Washington, DC, Joe Stork (English): +1-202-612-4327; or +1-202-299-4925 (mobile)

In Jerusalem, Bill Van Esveld (English): +972-52-604-1120 (mobile)

Egypt Continues to Kill African Migrants Heading for Israel

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Press Release

9 September 2009

Egypt: Four migrants killed - Authorities must reign in border guards


The Egyptian authorities must control their forces at the border with Israel and prevent them from killing migrants attempting to cross it, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. The call follows the deadliest border incident this year, in which four men were shot dead by Egyptian security forces as they attempted to cross the border into Israel. Two others were also injured in the incident.

“Enough is enough. This incident is further proof, if any should be needed, that the Egyptian authorities have yet to direct their forces on how to avoid killing migrants trying to cross the border,” said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. “They must assert greater control over their forces at the border and take away their license to kill.”

So far this year, Egyptian security forces have killed at least 11 people trying to cross the border into Israel. At least 11 others have been wounded – some critically. Those include the victims of Tuesday’s incident.

Thousands of individuals, including refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea as well as other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, try to cross from Egypt to Israel each year.

They run the risk of being shot dead by Egyptian border guards who still appear to lack adequate training for handling such situations and frequently resort to lethal force rather than other means of intervention, despite the spiraling number of victims. No investigation is known to have been held into any of the shootings and the names and nationalities of those killed are rarely disclosed. Some of the victims may not have been carrying identification papers.

Amnesty International is urging the Egyptian authorities to open an investigation into the killings of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers at the border, to clarify the specific circumstances in which security officers at the border are instructed that they may use firearms and to ensure that these comply with relevant international human rights standards.

Background:
At least 28 people, mostly Sudanese and Eritreans, were shot dead and scores injured and then arrested while trying to cross into Israel without official permission in 2008.

The use of lethal force, which began in mid 2007, may be as a result of Israel’s pressure on Egypt to reduce the flow of people crossing the border into its territory without authorization.

According to the UNHCR, some two to three million Sudanese nationals live in Egypt; most of them are migrants. However, they also include thousands of refugees who have fled persecution in Sudan.

While states have the right to exercise authority over their border and to regulate entry into their territory, any measures taken in this regard must not come in conflict with or violate internationally recognized human rights law and standards.

Public Document

****************************************

For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or email: press@amnesty.org

International Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW, UK

www.amnesty.org

Egypt police kill African migrant at Israel border

Fri Jul 31, 2009

EL-ARISH, Egypt, July 31 (Reuters) - Egyptian police shot dead an African migrant trying to cross the border into Israel on Friday, security and medical sources said, the latest killing in an upsurge of violence at the sensitive frontier.

The man, who was shot in the chest and right leg, was announced dead on arrival at Egypt's Rafah hospital, a medical source said. His nationality was not immediately known. A 20-year-old Eritrean was arrested as the pair tried to breach barbed wire between the two countries, a security source said. Police ordered the men to stop, opening fire when the migrants failed to do so.

At least seven African migrants have been killed at the border since mid-May, after a six-month lull. At least 28 migrants were killed at the border last year.

Analysts and aid workers say the migration route from the Horn of Africa through Egypt to Israel has seen increased migrant flow as other routes, such as via Libya to Europe, become more difficult.

Eritreans are the single largest group of migrants attempting to cross into Israel.

Monthly migrant arrests by Egypt at the border have surged, rising five-fold in May to 55 and then doubling again to 114 in June and 160 in July, security sources said. That compares to just six arrests in January.

Cairo, which had for years tolerated tens of thousands of African migrants on its territory, has deported hundreds of Eritrean asylum seekers back to Asmara despite objections from the United Nations, which feared they could face torture.
(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed; Writing by Alastair Sharp)

Egypt police kill African migrant at Israel border