HRW report: I Wanted to Lie Down and Die: Trafficking and Torture of Eritreans in Sudan and Egypt
An Eritrean man shows the wounds he says traffickers inflicted on him in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to force him and his relatives to pay ransom for his release.
© 2013 Tom Dale for Human Rights Watch
Eritreans fleeing human rights abuses in their homeland are routinely kidnapped by human traffickers as they cross into eastern Sudan, bound for Israel. In a new report out Tuesday, Human Rights Watch says the Eritreans are transported to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, where they are brutally tortured by traffickers who then demand vast sums of money from victims’ families to secure their release. Further, according the author of the report, Human Rights Watch Senior Refugee Researcher Gerry Simpson, the traffickers are often assisted by Sudanese and Egyptian security officials.
